ministériellevsministériellesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#18,532
“ministérielle” frequency rank
#34,191
“ministérielles” frequency rank
52723
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ministérielle ministérielles
Definition Féminin singulier de ministériel. Féminin pluriel de ministériel.

Same sound, different letters: ministérielle vs ministérielles

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 13 letters. ministérielle runs 13 letters (CVCVCCVCVVCCV) against ministérielles's 14 (CVCVCCVCVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

13 ch
ministérielle
14 ch
ministérielles

Homophone desk: ministérielle vs ministérielles

This is the hard kind. ministérielle and ministérielles are pronounced identically (\mi.nis.te.ʁjɛl\) 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) - “ministérielle” sits inside “ministérielles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52723, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ministérielle is recorded at frequency rank #18,532, classified as anadj, pronounced \mi.nis.te.ʁjɛl\. ministérielles is at rank #34,191, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mi.nis.te.ʁjɛl\.

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 52723, this pair ranks #145,741 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ministérielle vs ministérielles

Shared letters: eilmnrsté. Private to "ministérielle": -. Private to "ministérielles": -.

"ministérielle" · 13 letters · shape CVCVCCVCVVCCV  ·  "ministérielles" · 14 letters · shape CVCVCCVCVVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ministérielle" and "ministérielles" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\mi.nis.te.ʁjɛl\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "ministérielle" or "ministérielles" show up more?
"ministérielle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,532 in our French list, against #34,191 for "ministérielles". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

"ministérielle" and "ministérielles" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ministérielle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ministérielles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #145,741 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ministérielle" and "ministérielles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ministérielles vs ministériels". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #145,741 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