Which to use
“maternel” and “maternels” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #12,197
- “maternel” frequency rank
- #34,621
- “maternels” frequency rank
- 46818
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maternel | maternels |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est propre à la mère, qui est naturel à une mère. | Masculin pluriel de maternel. |
Same sound, different letters: maternel vs maternels
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. maternel runs 8 letters (CVCVCCVC) against maternels's 9 (CVCVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: maternel vs maternels
This is the hard kind. maternel and maternels are pronounced identically (\ma.tɛʁ.nɛl\) 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) - “maternel” sits inside “maternels”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46818, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maternel is recorded at frequency rank #12,197, classified as anadj, pronounced \ma.tɛʁ.nɛl\. maternels is at rank #34,621, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ma.tɛʁ.nɛl\.
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 46818, this pair ranks #191,835 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of maternel vs maternels
Shared letters: aelmnrt. Private to "maternel": -. Private to "maternels": s.
"maternel" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC · "maternels" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "maternel" and "maternels" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "maternel" or "maternels" show up more?
After this comparison
"maternel" and "maternels" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "maternel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "maternels" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #191,835 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maternel" and "maternels" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "materials vs maternels". 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 #191,835 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.