malhonnêtevsmalhonnêtesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#19,339
“malhonnête” frequency rank
#32,890
“malhonnêtes” frequency rank
52229
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature malhonnête malhonnêtes
Definition Qui manque d’honnêteté, qui est contraire à l’honneur, à la probité. Pluriel de malhonnête.

Same sound, different letters: malhonnête vs malhonnêtes

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 10 letters.

10 ch
malhonnête
11 ch
malhonnêtes

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

This is the hard kind. malhonnête and malhonnêtes are pronounced identically (\ma.lɔ.nɛt\) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “malhonnête” sits inside “malhonnêtes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52229, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

malhonnête is recorded at frequency rank #19,339, classified as anadj, pronounced \ma.lɔ.nɛt\. malhonnêtes is at rank #32,890, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ma.lɔ.nɛt\.

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 52229, this pair ranks #149,176 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of malhonnête vs malhonnêtes

Shared letters: aehlmnotê. Private to "malhonnête": -. Private to "malhonnêtes": s.

"malhonnête" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCV  ·  "malhonnêtes" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "malhonnête" and "malhonnêtes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ma.lɔ.nɛt\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "malhonnête" or "malhonnêtes"?
"malhonnête" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,339 in our French list, against #32,890 for "malhonnêtes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list