habiletésvshabilitéeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: habiletés is a noun, habilitée is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“habiletés” is a noun and “habilitée” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#32,428
“habiletés” frequency rank
#43,970
“habilitée” frequency rank
76398
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature habiletés habilitée
Definition Pluriel de habileté. Participe passé féminin singulier de habiliter.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set habiletés and habilitée apart are highlighted. They share 7 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

9 ch
habiletés
9 ch
habilitée

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: habiletés is \a.bil.te\ while habilitée is \a.bi.li.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76398, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

habiletés is recorded at frequency rank #32,428, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.bil.te\. habilitée is at rank #43,970, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.bi.li.te\.

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 76398, this pair ranks #31,261 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of habiletés vs habilitée

Shared letters: abehilté. Private to "habiletés": s. Private to "habilitée": -.

"habiletés" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC  ·  "habilitée" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVV

Frequency comparison

habiletés#32,428
habilitée#43,970

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "habiletés" and "habilitée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "habiletés" is a noun and "habilitée" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "habiletés" or "habilitée"?
"habiletés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,428 in our French list, against #43,970 for "habilitée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering habiletés vs habilitée

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “habiletés”; for a verb, it's “habilitée”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “habiletés” 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