gentillevsgentillesTell them apart

Quick tell: gentille is a noun, gentilles is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“gentille” is a noun and “gentilles” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,561
“gentille” frequency rank
#25,663
“gentilles” frequency rank
31224
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gentille gentilles
Definition Personnage féminin d’une œuvre de fiction qui incarne le bien, par opposition à la méchante qui fait le mal. Féminin pluriel de gentil.

Same sound, different letters: gentille vs gentilles

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters.

8 ch
gentille
9 ch
gentilles

Ear matches; page differs - gentille and gentilles

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: gentille and gentilles carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ʒɑ̃.tij\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “gentille” sits inside “gentilles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31224, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gentille is recorded at frequency rank #5,561, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʒɑ̃.tij\. gentilles is at rank #25,663, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʒɑ̃.tij\.

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 31224, this pair ranks #305,150 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gentille vs gentilles

Shared letters: egilnt. Private to "gentille": -. Private to "gentilles": s.

"gentille" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV  ·  "gentilles" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gentilleegntille · genitlle · genntille · gentile · gentilel · gentlile · genttille · getnille
  • gentillesegntilles · genitlles · genntilles · gentilels · gentiles · gentilless · gentillse · gentliles

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "gentille" and "gentilles" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gentille" is a noun and "gentilles" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "gentille" or "gentilles" show up more?
"gentille" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,561 in our French list, against #25,663 for "gentilles". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gentille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gentilles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #305,150 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gentille" and "gentilles" 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 #305,150 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