inégalvsinégalesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#27,490
“inégal” frequency rank
#39,854
“inégales” frequency rank
67344
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature inégal inégales
Definition Qui n’est pas égal ; qui n’est pas de même étendue, de même durée, de même valeur, de même intensité, etc. Féminin pluriel de inégal.

Same sound, different letters: inégal vs inégales

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. inégal runs 6 letters (VCVCVC) against inégales's 8 (VCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
inégal
8 ch
inégales

Ear matches; page differs - inégal and inégales

This is the hard kind. inégal and inégales are pronounced identically (\i.ne.ɡal\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “inégal” sits inside “inégales”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67344, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

inégal is recorded at frequency rank #27,490, classified as anadj, pronounced \i.ne.ɡal\. inégales is at rank #39,854, tagged as anadj, pronounced \i.ne.ɡal\.

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 67344, this pair ranks #63,832 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of inégal vs inégales

Shared letters: agilné. Private to "inégal": -. Private to "inégales": es.

"inégal" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC  ·  "inégales" · 8 letters · shape VCVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "inégal" and "inégales" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\i.ne.ɡal\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "inégal" or "inégales"?
"inégal" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,490 in our French list, against #39,854 for "inégales". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

"inégal" and "inégales" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "inégal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "inégales" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #63,832 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "inégal" and "inégales" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "inégalée vs inégales". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #63,832 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