pâturagevspâturagesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#28,311
“pâturage” frequency rank
#21,740
“pâturages” frequency rank
50051
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pâturage pâturages
Definition Lieu couvert d’herbe où les bestiaux pâturent. Pluriel de pâturage.

Same sound, different letters: pâturage vs pâturages

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

8 ch
pâturage
9 ch
pâturages

Same sound, different spelling - pâturage / pâturages

This is the hard kind. pâturage and pâturages are pronounced identically (\pɑ.ty.ʁaʒ\) 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) - “pâturage” sits inside “pâturages”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50051, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pâturage is recorded at frequency rank #28,311, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɑ.ty.ʁaʒ\. pâturages is at rank #21,740, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɑ.ty.ʁaʒ\.

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 50051, this pair ranks #165,674 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pâturage vs pâturages

Shared letters: aegprtuâ. Private to "pâturage": -. Private to "pâturages": s.

"pâturage" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV  ·  "pâturages" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pâturage" for "pâturages" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\pɑ.ty.ʁaʒ\), 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, "pâturage" or "pâturages"?
"pâturages" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,740 in our French list, against #28,311 for "pâturage". 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 "pâturage" / "pâturages". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pâturage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pâturages" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #165,674 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pâturage" and "pâturages" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pâturage vs pâture". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #165,674 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