Which to use
“pénible” and “pénibles” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,488
- “pénible” frequency rank
- #19,121
- “pénibles” frequency rank
- 26609
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pénible | pénibles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui se fait avec peine, qui donne de la peine, de la fatigue. | Pluriel de pénible. |
Same sound, different letters: pénible vs pénibles
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. pénible runs 7 letters (CVCVCCV) against pénibles's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - pénible and pénibles
This is the hard kind. pénible and pénibles are pronounced identically (\pe.nibl\) 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) - “pénible” sits inside “pénibles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26609, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pénible is recorded at frequency rank #7,488, classified as anadj, pronounced \pe.nibl\. pénibles is at rank #19,121, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pe.nibl\.
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 26609, this pair ranks #333,921 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of pénible vs pénibles
Shared letters: beilnpé. Private to "pénible": -. Private to "pénibles": s.
"pénible" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "pénibles" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pénible" and "pénibles" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "pénible" or "pénibles" show up more?
After this comparison
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "pénible" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pénibles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #333,921 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pénible" and "pénibles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pendules vs pénibles". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #333,921 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.