Which to use
“obstacle” and “obstacles” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,858
- “obstacle” frequency rank
- #6,420
- “obstacles” frequency rank
- 13278
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | obstacle | obstacles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ce qui empêche de passer. | Pluriel de obstacle. |
Same sound, different letters: obstacle vs obstacles
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - obstacle and obstacles
This is the hard kind. obstacle and obstacles are pronounced identically (\ɔp.stakl\) and both work as anoun. 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) - “obstacle” sits inside “obstacles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13278, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
obstacle is recorded at frequency rank #6,858, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɔp.stakl\. obstacles is at rank #6,420, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɔp.stakl\.
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 13278, this pair ranks #401,683 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of obstacle vs obstacles
Shared letters: abcelost. Private to "obstacle": -. Private to "obstacles": -.
"obstacle" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVCCV · "obstacles" · 9 letters · shape VCCCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "obstacle" and "obstacles" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "obstacle" or "obstacles" show up more?
After this comparison
"obstacle" and "obstacles" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "obstacle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "obstacles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #401,683 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- 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 #401,683 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.