partiellevspartielsTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#6,538
“partielle” frequency rank
#15,706
“partiels” frequency rank
22244
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature partielle partiels
Definition Épreuve intermédiaire pour obtenir un diplôme. Masculin pluriel de partiel.

Same sound, different letters: partielle vs partiels

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. partielle runs 9 letters (CVCCVVCCV) against partiels's 8 (CVCCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
partielle
8 ch
partiels

Ear matches; page differs - partielle and partiels

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: partielle and partiels carry the same recorded pronunciation, \paʁ.sjɛl\. 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22244, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

partielle is recorded at frequency rank #6,538, classified as anoun, pronounced \paʁ.sjɛl\. partiels is at rank #15,706, 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 22244, this pair ranks #359,066 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of partielle vs partiels

Shared letters: aeilprt. Private to "partielle": -. Private to "partiels": s.

"partielle" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVCCV  ·  "partiels" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • partielle ← aprtielle · paritelle · parrtielle · parteille · partiele · partielel · partilele · parttielle
  • partiels ← aprtiels · paritels · parrtiels · parteils · partiells · partielss · partiesl · partiles

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "partielle" for "partiels" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "partielle" is a noun and "partiels" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "partielle" or "partiels"?
"partielle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,538 in our French list, against #15,706 for "partiels". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "partielle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "partiels" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #359,066 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "partielle" and "partiels" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "partiels vs pastels". 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 #359,066 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