hydroélectriquevshydroélectriquesConfusable pair

Which to use

“hydroélectrique” and “hydroélectriques” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#29,385
“hydroélectrique” frequency rank
#40,311
“hydroélectriques” frequency rank
69696
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hydroélectrique hydroélectriques
Definition Qui produit de l’électricité en convertissant l’énergie de l’eau en mouvement. Pluriel de hydroélectrique.

Same sound, different letters: hydroélectrique vs hydroélectriques

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 15 letters. hydroélectrique runs 15 letters (CVCCVVCVCCCVCVV) against hydroélectriques's 16 (CVCCVVCVCCCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

15 ch
hydroélectrique
16 ch
hydroélectriques

Homophone desk: hydroélectrique vs hydroélectriques

This is the hard kind. hydroélectrique and hydroélectriques are pronounced identically (\i.dʁo.e.lɛk.tʁik\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “hydroélectrique” sits inside “hydroélectriques”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69696, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hydroélectrique is recorded at frequency rank #29,385, classified as anadj, pronounced \i.dʁo.e.lɛk.tʁik\. hydroélectriques is at rank #40,311, tagged as anadj, pronounced \i.dʁo.e.lɛk.tʁik\.

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 69696, this pair ranks #54,181 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of hydroélectrique vs hydroélectriques

Shared letters: cdehiloqrtuyé. Private to "hydroélectrique": -. Private to "hydroélectriques": s.

"hydroélectrique" · 15 letters · shape CVCCVVCVCCCVCVV  ·  "hydroélectriques" · 16 letters · shape CVCCVVCVCCCVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "hydroélectrique" for "hydroélectriques" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\i.dʁo.e.lɛk.tʁik\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "hydroélectrique" vs "hydroélectriques" - which ranks higher?
"hydroélectrique" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,385 in our French list, against #40,311 for "hydroélectriques". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "hydroélectrique" / "hydroélectriques". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hydroélectrique" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hydroélectriques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #54,181 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics

Confusion rank #54,181 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