habillevshabilléesTell them apart

Quick tell: habille is a verb, habillées is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“habille” is a verb and “habillées” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,883
“habille” frequency rank
#31,056
“habillées” frequency rank
41939
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature habille habillées
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de habiller. Féminin pluriel de habillé.

Where the eye mixes habille and habillées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. habille runs 7 letters (CVCVCCV) against habillées's 9 (CVCVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
habille
9 ch
habillées

Visual trap between habille and habillées

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: habille is \a.bij\ while habillées is ^((h muet))\a.bi.je\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41939, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

habille is recorded at frequency rank #10,883, classified as averb, pronounced \a.bij\. habillées is at rank #31,056, tagged as anadj, pronounced ^((h muet))\a.bi.je\.

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 41939, this pair ranks #229,429 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of habille vs habillées

Shared letters: abehil. Private to "habille": -. Private to "habillées": sé.

"habille" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "habillées" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • habille ← ahbille · habbille · habilel · hablile · haiblle · hbaille · hhabille

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "habille" for "habillées" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "habille" is a verb and "habillées" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "habille" or "habillées" show up more?
"habille" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,883 in our French list, against #31,056 for "habillées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "habille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "habillées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #229,429 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "habille" and "habillées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "habillées vs habituées". 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 #229,429 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