perturbateurvsperturbateursWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#36,530
“perturbateur” frequency rank
#22,972
“perturbateurs” frequency rank
59502
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perturbateur perturbateurs
Definition Celui qui cause du trouble. Masculin pluriel de perturbateur.

Same sound, different letters: perturbateur vs perturbateurs

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 12 letters. perturbateur runs 12 letters (CVCCVCCVCVVC) against perturbateurs's 13 (CVCCVCCVCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

12 ch
perturbateur
13 ch
perturbateurs

Homophone desk: perturbateur vs perturbateurs

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: perturbateur and perturbateurs carry the same recorded pronunciation, \pɛʁ.tyʁ.ba.tœʁ\. 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 extra letter(s) - “perturbateur” sits inside “perturbateurs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59502, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perturbateur is recorded at frequency rank #36,530, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁ.tyʁ.ba.tœʁ\. perturbateurs is at rank #22,972, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ.tyʁ.ba.tœʁ\.

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 59502, this pair ranks #102,777 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of perturbateur vs perturbateurs

Shared letters: abeprtu. Private to "perturbateur": -. Private to "perturbateurs": s.

"perturbateur" · 12 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCVVC  ·  "perturbateurs" · 13 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perturbateur ← eprturbateur · perrturbateur · pertrubateur · pertturbateur · pertubrateur · perturabteur · perturbaetur · perturbateru
  • perturbateurs ← eprturbateurs · perrturbateurs · pertrubateurs · pertturbateurs · pertubrateurs · perturabteurs · perturbaeturs · perturbaterus

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "perturbateur" for "perturbateurs" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "perturbateur" is a noun and "perturbateurs" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "perturbateur" vs "perturbateurs" - which ranks higher?
"perturbateurs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,972 in our French list, against #36,530 for "perturbateur". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "perturbateur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "perturbateurs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #102,777 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • 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 #102,777 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