maladesvsmaladifWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#3,274
“malades” frequency rank
#43,001
“maladif” frequency rank
46275
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature malades maladif
Definition Pluriel de l’adjectif malade. Qui est sujet à être malade.

Where the eye mixes malades and maladif

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
malades
7 ch
maladif

Visual trap between malades and maladif

A purely visual mix-up. malades (\ma.lad\) and maladif (\ma.la.dif\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46275, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

malades is recorded at frequency rank #3,274, classified as anadj, pronounced \ma.lad\. maladif is at rank #43,001, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ma.la.dif\.

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 46275, this pair ranks #196,204 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of malades vs maladif

Shared letters: adlm. Private to "malades": es. Private to "maladif": fi.

"malades" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "maladif" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maladesamlades · maaldes · maladdes · maladess · maladse · malaeds · maldaes · mallades
  • maladifamladif · maaldif · maladdif · maladfi · maladiff · malaidf · maldaif · malladif

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "malades" and "maladif" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ma.lad\ versus \ma.la.dif\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "malades" or "maladif"?
"malades" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,274 in our French list, against #43,001 for "maladif". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "malades" and "maladif" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "malades" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "maladif" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #196,204 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "malades" and "maladif" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maladif vs malais". 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 #196,204 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