partielvspartiellesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#6,537
“partiel” frequency rank
#16,199
“partielles” frequency rank
22736
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature partiel partielles
Definition Qui n’est qu’une partie d’un tout. Féminin pluriel de partiel.

Same sound, different letters: partiel vs partielles

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. partiel runs 7 letters (CVCCVVC) against partielles's 10 (CVCCVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
partiel
10 ch
partielles

Same sound, different spelling - partiel / partielles

This is the hard kind. partiel and partielles are pronounced identically (\paʁ.sjɛl\) 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 3 extra letter(s) - “partiel” sits inside “partielles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22736, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

partiel is recorded at frequency rank #6,537, classified as anadj, pronounced \paʁ.sjɛl\. partielles is at rank #16,199, tagged as anadj, pronounced \paʁ.sjɛl\.

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 22736, this pair ranks #356,431 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of partiel vs partielles

Shared letters: aeilprt. Private to "partiel": -. Private to "partielles": s.

"partiel" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "partielles" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • partielaprtiel · paritel · parrtiel · parteil · partiell · partile · parttiel · patriel
  • partiellesaprtielles · paritelles · parrtielles · parteilles · partielels · partieles · partielless · partiellse

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "partiel" for "partielles" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\paʁ.sjɛl\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "partiel" or "partielles" show up more?
"partiel" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,537 in our French list, against #16,199 for "partielles". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "partiel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "partielles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #356,431 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "partiel" and "partielles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "partiel vs Patel". 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 #356,431 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list