paralysé vs paralysés, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#18,821
“paralysé” frequency rank: #40,906
“paralysés” frequency rank: 59727
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	paralysé	paralysés
Definition	Atteint de paralysie.	Masculin pluriel de paralysé.

Same sound, different letters: paralysé vs paralysés

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. paralysé runs 8 letters (CVCVCVCV) against paralysés's 9 (CVCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch

paralysé

9 ch

paralysés

Same sound, different spelling - paralysé / paralysés

This is the hard kind. paralysé and paralysés are pronounced identically (\pa.ʁa.li.ze\) 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) - “paralysé” sits inside “paralysés”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59727, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

paralysé is recorded at frequency rank #18,821, classified as anadj, pronounced \pa.ʁa.li.ze\. paralysés is at rank #40,906, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pa.ʁa.li.ze\.

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 59727, this pair ranks #101,502 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of paralysé vs paralysés

Shared letters: alprsyé. Private to "paralysé": -. Private to "paralysés": -.

"paralysé" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV · "paralysés" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "paralysé" and "paralysés" be used interchangeably?

No. They are pronounced the same (\pa.ʁa.li.ze\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.

Which is more common, "paralysé" or "paralysés"?

"paralysé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,821 in our French list, against #40,906 for "paralysés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "paralysé" / "paralysés". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

Full dictionary entry for "paralysé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "paralysés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #101,502 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"paralysé" and "paralysés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "paralyser vs paralysés". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #101,502 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.