païennevspaïennesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: païenne is a noun, païennes is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“païenne” is a noun and “païennes” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,092
“païenne” frequency rank
#45,223
“païennes” frequency rank
81315
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature païenne païennes
Definition Personne ne pratiquant pas la religion juive ou chrétienne. Féminin pluriel de païen.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set païenne and païennes apart are highlighted. They share 7 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
païenne
8 ch
païennes

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: païenne and païennes carry the same recorded pronunciation, \pa.jɛn\. 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) - “païenne” sits inside “païennes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81315, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

païenne is recorded at frequency rank #36,092, classified as anoun, pronounced \pa.jɛn\. païennes is at rank #45,223, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pa.jɛn\.

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 81315, this pair ranks #19,010 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of païenne vs païennes

Shared letters: aenpï. Private to "païenne": -. Private to "païennes": s.

"païenne" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "païennes" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Frequency comparison

païenne#36,092
païennes#45,223

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "païenne" and "païennes" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "païenne" is a noun and "païennes" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "païenne" or "païennes"?
"païenne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,092 in our French list, against #45,223 for "païennes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering païenne vs païennes

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “païenne”; for an adjective, it's “païennes”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “païenne” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list