patineurvspatineursWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#32,110
“patineur” frequency rank
#41,444
“patineurs” frequency rank
73554
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature patineur patineurs
Definition Personne qui se déplace en glissant sur la glace à l’aide de patins. Pluriel de patineur.

Same sound, different letters: patineur vs patineurs

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

8 ch
patineur
9 ch
patineurs

Homophone desk: patineur vs patineurs

This is the hard kind. patineur and patineurs are pronounced identically (\pa.ti.nœʁ\) and both work as anoun. 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) - “patineur” sits inside “patineurs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73554, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

patineur is recorded at frequency rank #32,110, classified as anoun, pronounced \pa.ti.nœʁ\. patineurs is at rank #41,444, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pa.ti.nœʁ\.

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 73554, this pair ranks #40,064 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of patineur vs patineurs

Shared letters: aeinprtu. Private to "patineur": -. Private to "patineurs": s.

"patineur" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC  ·  "patineurs" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • patineuraptineur · paitneur · patienur · patineru · patineurr · patinneur · patinuer · patnieur
  • patineursaptineurs · paitneurs · patienurs · patinerus · patineurrs · patineurss · patineusr · patinneurs

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "patineur" and "patineurs" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\pa.ti.nœʁ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "patineur" vs "patineurs" - which ranks higher?
"patineur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,110 in our French list, against #41,444 for "patineurs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

"patineur" and "patineurs" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "patineur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "patineurs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,064 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "patineur" and "patineurs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "parieurs vs patineurs". 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 #40,064 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