Which to use
“gentille” is a noun and “Gentilly” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,561
- “gentille” frequency rank
- #38,314
- “Gentilly” frequency rank
- 43875
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gentille | Gentilly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Personnage féminin d’une œuvre de fiction qui incarne le bien, par opposition à la méchante qui fait le mal. | Commune française, située dans le département du Val-de-Marne. |
Where the eye mixes gentille and Gentilly
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses gentille with Gentilly
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gentille is \ʒɑ̃.tij\ while Gentilly is \ʒɑ̃.ti.ji\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “gentille” becomes y in “Gentilly”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43875, 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\. 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 43875, this pair ranks #214,727 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of gentille vs Gentilly
Shared letters: egilnt. Private to "gentille": -. Private to "Gentilly": y.
"gentille" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV · "Gentilly" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "gentille" for "Gentilly" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "gentille" or "Gentilly" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "gentille" 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 #214,727 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "gentille" 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 #214,727 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.