postérieuresvspostérieursWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#23,985
“postérieures” frequency rank
#27,192
“postérieurs” frequency rank
51177
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature postérieures postérieurs
Definition Féminin pluriel de postérieur. Masculin pluriel de postérieur.

Same sound, different letters: postérieures vs postérieurs

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 11 letters.

12 ch
postérieures
11 ch
postérieurs

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

This is the hard kind. postérieures and postérieurs are pronounced identically (\pɔs.te.ʁjœʁ\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51177, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

postérieures is recorded at frequency rank #23,985, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɔs.te.ʁjœʁ\. postérieurs is at rank #27,192, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɔs.te.ʁjœʁ\.

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 51177, this pair ranks #156,992 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of postérieures vs postérieurs

Shared letters: eioprstué. Private to "postérieures": -. Private to "postérieurs": -.

"postérieures" · 12 letters · shape CVCCVCVVVCVC  ·  "postérieurs" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVVVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "postérieures" and "postérieurs" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\pɔs.te.ʁjœʁ\), 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, "postérieures" or "postérieurs"?
"postérieures" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,985 in our French list, against #27,192 for "postérieurs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list