licenciéevslicenciésWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: licenciée is a noun, licenciés is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“licenciée” is a noun and “licenciés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,473
“licenciée” frequency rank
#17,991
“licenciés” frequency rank
54464
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature licenciée licenciés
Definition Femme qui, dans les facultés de lettres, de sciences, de droit, a obtenu son diplôme de licence. Masculin pluriel de licencié.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set licenciée and licenciés apart are highlighted. They share 8 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

9 ch
licenciée
9 ch
licenciés

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: licenciée and licenciés carry the same recorded pronunciation, \li.sɑ̃.sje\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by a single letter - e in “licenciée” becomes s in “licenciés”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54464, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

licenciée is recorded at frequency rank #36,473, classified as anoun, pronounced \li.sɑ̃.sje\. licenciés is at rank #17,991, tagged as anadj, pronounced \li.sɑ̃.sje\.

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 54464, this pair ranks #133,892 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of licenciée vs licenciés

Shared letters: ceilné. Private to "licenciée": -. Private to "licenciés": s.

"licenciée" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVVV  ·  "licenciés" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVVC

Frequency comparison

licenciée#36,473
licenciés#17,991

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "licenciée" and "licenciés" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "licenciée" is a noun and "licenciés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "licenciée" or "licenciés"?
"licenciés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,991 in our French list, against #36,473 for "licenciée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering licenciée vs licenciés

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “licenciée”; for an adjective, it's “licenciés”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “licenciée” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list