Which to use
“gentil” and “gentils” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,280
- “gentil” frequency rank
- #7,064
- “gentils” frequency rank
- 9344
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gentil | gentils |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Agréable, charmant, mignon, aimable. Qui a une certaine grâce, un certain agrément délicat. | Masculin pluriel de gentil. |
Same sound, different letters: gentil vs gentils
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. gentil runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against gentils's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - gentil and gentils
This is the hard kind. gentil and gentils are pronounced identically (\ʒɑ̃.ti\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “gentil” sits inside “gentils”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9344, 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\. gentils is at rank #7,064, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʒɑ̃.ti\.
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 9344, this pair ranks #416,999 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of gentil vs gentils
Shared letters: egilnt. Private to "gentil": -. Private to "gentils": s.
"gentil" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "gentils" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "gentil" and "gentils" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "gentil" or "gentils" show up more?
After this comparison
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "gentil" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "gentils" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #416,999 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "gentil" and "gentils" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gentils vs gents". 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 #416,999 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.