gourmandevsgourmandesWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#23,567
“gourmande” frequency rank
#38,826
“gourmandes” frequency rank
62393
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gourmande gourmandes
Definition Femme gourmande. Féminin pluriel de gourmand.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set gourmande and gourmandes apart are highlighted. They share 9 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

9 ch
gourmande
10 ch
gourmandes

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: gourmande and gourmandes carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ɡuʁ.mɑ̃d\. 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) - “gourmande” sits inside “gourmandes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62393, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gourmande is recorded at frequency rank #23,567, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡuʁ.mɑ̃d\. gourmandes is at rank #38,826, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɡuʁ.mɑ̃d\.

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 62393, this pair ranks #87,360 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of gourmande vs gourmandes

Shared letters: adegmnoru. Private to "gourmande": -. Private to "gourmandes": s.

"gourmande" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVCCV  ·  "gourmandes" · 10 letters · shape CVVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gourmandeggourmande · gorumande · goumrande · gouramnde · gourmadne · gourmandde · gourmaned · gourmannde
  • gourmandesggourmandes · gorumandes · goumrandes · gouramndes · gourmadnes · gourmanddes · gourmandess · gourmandse

Frequency comparison

gourmande#23,567
gourmandes#38,826

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "gourmande" and "gourmandes" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gourmande" is a noun and "gourmandes" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "gourmande" or "gourmandes"?
"gourmande" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,567 in our French list, against #38,826 for "gourmandes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering gourmande vs gourmandes

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “gourmande”; for an adjective, it's “gourmandes”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “gourmande” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list