Which to use
“mortelle” is a noun and “mortelles” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,540
- “mortelle” frequency rank
- #21,401
- “mortelles” frequency rank
- 31941
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mortelle | mortelles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Femme destinée à mourir un jour. | Féminin pluriel de mortel. |
Same sound, different letters: mortelle vs mortelles
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. mortelle runs 8 letters (CVCCVCCV) against mortelles's 9 (CVCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - mortelle / mortelles
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: mortelle and mortelles carry the same recorded pronunciation, \mɔʁ.tɛl\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “mortelle” sits inside “mortelles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31941, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mortelle is recorded at frequency rank #10,540, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɔʁ.tɛl\. mortelles is at rank #21,401, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mɔʁ.tɛl\.
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 31941, this pair ranks #300,602 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mortelle vs mortelles
Shared letters: elmort. Private to "mortelle": -. Private to "mortelles": s.
"mortelle" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV · "mortelles" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mortelle" and "mortelles" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "mortelle" or "mortelles" show up more?
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 "mortelle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mortelles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #300,602 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mortelle" and "mortelles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mortelles vs myrtilles". 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 #300,602 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.