mécaniquevsmécaniquesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,277
“mécanique” frequency rank
#7,464
“mécaniques” frequency rank
10741
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mécanique mécaniques
Definition Relatif aux machines, aux mécanismes. Pluriel de mécanique.

Same sound, different letters: mécanique vs mécaniques

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. mécanique runs 9 letters (CVCVCVCVV) against mécaniques's 10 (CVCVCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
mécanique
10 ch
mécaniques

Ear matches; page differs - mécanique and mécaniques

This is the hard kind. mécanique and mécaniques are pronounced identically (\me.ka.nik\) 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) - “mécanique” sits inside “mécaniques”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10741, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mécanique is recorded at frequency rank #3,277, classified as anadj, pronounced \me.ka.nik\. mécaniques is at rank #7,464, tagged as anadj, pronounced \me.ka.nik\.

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 10741, this pair ranks #411,818 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of mécanique vs mécaniques

Shared letters: aceimnqué. Private to "mécanique": -. Private to "mécaniques": s.

"mécanique" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVV  ·  "mécaniques" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "mécanique" and "mécaniques" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\me.ka.nik\), 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, "mécanique" or "mécaniques"?
"mécanique" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,277 in our French list, against #7,464 for "mécaniques". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mécanique" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mécaniques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #411,818 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mécanique" and "mécaniques" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mécaniques vs mécanismes". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #411,818 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