isolévsisoléesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#6,210
“isolé” frequency rank
#14,292
“isolées” frequency rank
20502
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature isolé isolées
Definition Qui est séparé de choses de même nature ou d’une autre nature. Féminin pluriel de isolé.

Same sound, different letters: isolé vs isolées

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. isolé runs 5 letters (VCVCV) against isolées's 7 (VCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
isolé
7 ch
isolées

Same sound, different spelling - isolé / isolées

This is the hard kind. isolé and isolées are pronounced identically (\i.zɔ.le\) 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) - “isolé” sits inside “isolées”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20502, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

isolé is recorded at frequency rank #6,210, classified as anadj, pronounced \i.zɔ.le\. isolées is at rank #14,292, tagged as anadj, pronounced \i.zɔ.le\.

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 20502, this pair ranks #367,956 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of isolé vs isolées

Shared letters: ilosé. Private to "isolé": -. Private to "isolées": e.

"isolé" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "isolées" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "isolé" and "isolées" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\i.zɔ.le\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "isolé" or "isolées" show up more?
"isolé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,210 in our French list, against #14,292 for "isolées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "isolé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "isolées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #367,956 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "isolé" and "isolées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "isles vs isolées". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #367,956 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