Which to use
“malheur” and “malheurs” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,503
- “malheur” frequency rank
- #14,972
- “malheurs” frequency rank
- 19475
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | malheur | malheurs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Mauvaise fortune ; mauvaise destinée. | Pluriel de malheur. |
Same sound, different letters: malheur vs malheurs
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. malheur runs 7 letters (CVCCVVC) against malheurs's 8 (CVCCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - malheur / malheurs
This is the hard kind. malheur and malheurs are pronounced identically (\ma.lœʁ\) 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) - “malheur” sits inside “malheurs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19475, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
malheur is recorded at frequency rank #4,503, classified as anoun, pronounced \ma.lœʁ\. malheurs is at rank #14,972, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ma.lœʁ\.
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 19475, this pair ranks #373,082 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of malheur vs malheurs
Shared letters: aehlmru. Private to "malheur": -. Private to "malheurs": s.
"malheur" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "malheurs" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "malheur" for "malheurs" ever safe?
Frequency check: "malheur" vs "malheurs" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "malheur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "malheurs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #373,082 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "malheur" and "malheurs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "malheur vs matheux". 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 #373,082 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.