généraliséevsgénéraliserTell them apart

Quick tell: généralisée is a adjective, généraliser is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“généralisée” is an adjective and “généraliser” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,781
“généralisée” frequency rank
#16,898
“généraliser” frequency rank
28679
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature généralisée généraliser
Definition Féminin singulier de généralisé. Donner un caractère général.

Same sound, different letters: généralisée vs généraliser

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 10 letters. généralisée (CVCVCVCVCVV) and généraliser (CVCVCVCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

11 ch
généralisée
11 ch
généraliser

Ear matches; page differs - généralisée and généraliser

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: généralisée and généraliser carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ʒe.ne.ʁa.li.ze\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28679, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

généralisée is recorded at frequency rank #11,781, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʒe.ne.ʁa.li.ze\. généraliser is at rank #16,898, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʒe.ne.ʁa.li.ze\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 28679, this pair ranks #321,356 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of généralisée vs généraliser

Shared letters: aegilnrsé. Private to "généralisée": -. Private to "généraliser": -.

"généralisée" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCVCVCVV  ·  "généraliser" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "généralisée" for "généraliser" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "généralisée" is an adjective and "généraliser" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "généralisée" or "généraliser"?
"généralisée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,781 in our French list, against #16,898 for "généraliser". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've separated the homophone pair "généralisée" / "généraliser". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "généralisée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "généraliser" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #321,356 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "généralisée" and "généraliser" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "généralisées vs généraliser". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #321,356 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list