photographievsphotographiesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#4,516
“photographie” frequency rank
#7,214
“photographies” frequency rank
11730
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature photographie photographies
Definition Processus de fabrication d’images sur une surface sensible. Pluriel de photographie.

Where the eye mixes photographie and photographies

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 12 letters in sequence. photographie runs 12 letters (CCVCVCCVCCVV) against photographies's 13 (CCVCVCCVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

12 ch
photographie
13 ch
photographies

Look-alike desk: photographie vs photographies

A purely visual mix-up. photographie (\fɔ.to.ɡʁa.fi\) and photographies (\fɔ.tɔ.ɡʁa.fi\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “photographie” sits inside “photographies”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11730, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

photographie is recorded at frequency rank #4,516, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɔ.to.ɡʁa.fi\. photographies is at rank #7,214, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɔ.tɔ.ɡʁa.fi\.

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 11730, this pair ranks #408,057 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of photographie vs photographies

Shared letters: aeghioprt. Private to "photographie": -. Private to "photographies": s.

"photographie" · 12 letters · shape CCVCVCCVCCVV  ·  "photographies" · 13 letters · shape CCVCVCCVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • photographie ← hpotographie · phhotographie · phootgraphie · photgoraphie · photogarphie · photoggraphie · photograhpie · photographei
  • photographies ← hpotographies · phhotographies · phootgraphies · photgoraphies · photogarphies · photoggraphies · photograhpies · photographeis

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "photographie" for "photographies" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\fɔ.to.ɡʁa.fi\ versus \fɔ.tɔ.ɡʁa.fi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "photographie" vs "photographies" - which ranks higher?
"photographie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,516 in our French list, against #7,214 for "photographies". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "photographie" and "photographies" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "photographie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "photographies" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #408,057 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "photographie" and "photographies" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "photographie vs photography". 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 #408,057 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