Which to use
“gentil” is an adjective and “Gentilly” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,280
- “gentil” frequency rank
- #38,314
- “Gentilly” frequency rank
- 40594
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gentil | Gentilly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Agréable, charmant, mignon, aimable. Qui a une certaine grâce, un certain agrément délicat. | Commune française, située dans le département du Val-de-Marne. |
Where the eye mixes gentil and Gentilly
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. gentil runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against Gentilly's 8 (CVCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses gentil with Gentilly
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gentil is \ʒɑ̃.ti\ while Gentilly is \ʒɑ̃.ti.ji\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “gentil” sits inside “Gentilly”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40594, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
gentil is recorded at frequency rank #2,280, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʒɑ̃.ti\. Gentilly is at rank #38,314, tagged as aname, pronounced \ʒɑ̃.ti.ji\.
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 40594, this pair ranks #239,359 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of gentil vs Gentilly
Shared letters: egilnt. Private to "gentil": -. Private to "Gentilly": y.
"gentil" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "Gentilly" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "gentil" for "Gentilly" ever safe?
Frequency check: "gentil" vs "Gentilly" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "gentil" and "Gentilly" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "gentil" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Gentilly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #239,359 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "gentil" and "Gentilly" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gentilles vs Gentilly". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #239,359 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.