Which to use
“ondulé” is an adjective and “ongle” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #49,832
- “ondulé” frequency rank
- #17,778
- “ongle” frequency rank
- 67610
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ondulé | ongle |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Dont la surface présente ou semble présenter des ondulations. | Lame dure, cornée, translucide, qui revêt le dessus du bout des doigts et des orteils. |
Where the eye mixes ondulé and ongle
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. ondulé runs 6 letters (VCCVCV) against ongle's 5 (VCCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses ondulé with ongle
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ondulé is \ɔ̃.dy.le\ while ongle is \ɔ̃ɡl\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67610, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ondulé is recorded at frequency rank #49,832, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɔ̃.dy.le\. ongle is at rank #17,778, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɔ̃ɡl\.
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 67610, this pair ranks #62,675 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ondulé vs ongle
Shared letters: lno. Private to "ondulé": dué. Private to "ongle": eg.
"ondulé" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "ongle" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- ongle ← nogle · ognle · ongel · onggle · onglle · onlge · onngle
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ondulé" and "ongle" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "ondulé" vs "ongle" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "ondulé" and "ongle" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "ondulé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ongle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #62,675 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ondulé" and "ongle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ondulé vs ondulée". 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 #62,675 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.