Which to use
“indicatif” and “indicatifs” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,487
- “indicatif” frequency rank
- #49,149
- “indicatifs” frequency rank
- 63636
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | indicatif | indicatifs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui indique. | Masculin pluriel de indicatif. |
Same sound, different letters: indicatif vs indicatifs
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. indicatif runs 9 letters (VCCVCVCVC) against indicatifs's 10 (VCCVCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - indicatif / indicatifs
This is the hard kind. indicatif and indicatifs are pronounced identically (\ɛ̃.di.ka.tif\) 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) - “indicatif” sits inside “indicatifs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63636, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
indicatif is recorded at frequency rank #14,487, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.di.ka.tif\. indicatifs is at rank #49,149, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.di.ka.tif\.
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 63636, this pair ranks #80,974 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of indicatif vs indicatifs
Shared letters: acdfint. Private to "indicatif": -. Private to "indicatifs": s.
"indicatif" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCVC · "indicatifs" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- indicatif ← idnicatif · indciatif · inddicatif · indiactif · indicaitf · indicatfi · indicatiff · indicattif
- indicatifs ← idnicatifs · indciatifs · inddicatifs · indiactifs · indicaitfs · indicatfis · indicatiffs · indicatifss
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "indicatif" for "indicatifs" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "indicatif" or "indicatifs" show up more?
What to do next
"indicatif" and "indicatifs" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "indicatif" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "indicatifs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #80,974 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "indicatif" and "indicatifs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "incitatifs vs indicatifs". 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 #80,974 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.