Which to use
“intonation” and “intonations” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,865
- “intonation” frequency rank
- #49,735
- “intonations” frequency rank
- 82600
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | intonation | intonations |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Manière d’attaquer un son, un air. | Pluriel de intonation. |
Same sound, different letters: intonation vs intonations
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 10 letters. intonation runs 10 letters (VCCVCVCVVC) against intonations's 11 (VCCVCVCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - intonation / intonations
This is the hard kind. intonation and intonations are pronounced identically (\ɛ̃.tɔ.na.sjɔ̃\) and both work as anoun. 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) - “intonation” sits inside “intonations”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82600, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
intonation is recorded at frequency rank #32,865, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.tɔ.na.sjɔ̃\. intonations is at rank #49,735, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.tɔ.na.sjɔ̃\.
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 82600, this pair ranks #16,400 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of intonation vs intonations
Shared letters: ainot. Private to "intonation": -. Private to "intonations": s.
"intonation" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVVC · "intonations" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- intonation ← inntonation · inotnation · intnoation · intoantion · intonaiton · intonatino · intonationn · intonatoin
- intonations ← inntonations · inotnations · intnoations · intoantions · intonaitons · intonatinos · intonationns · intonationss
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "intonation" and "intonations" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "intonation" or "intonations"?
Useful next steps
"intonation" and "intonations" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "intonation" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "intonations" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #16,400 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "intonation" and "intonations" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "intonations vs invocations". 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 #16,400 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.