prématuréevsprématurésWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#19,118
“prématurée” frequency rank
#43,089
“prématurés” frequency rank
62207
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prématurée prématurés
Definition Féminin singulier de prématuré. Masculin pluriel de prématuré.

Same sound, different letters: prématurée vs prématurés

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. prématurée (CCVCVCVCVV) and prématurés (CCVCVCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

10 ch
prématurée
10 ch
prématurés

Ear matches; page differs - prématurée and prématurés

This is the hard kind. prématurée and prématurés are pronounced identically (\pʁe.ma.ty.ʁe\) 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 a single letter - e in “prématurée” becomes s in “prématurés”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62207, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prématurée is recorded at frequency rank #19,118, classified as anadj, pronounced \pʁe.ma.ty.ʁe\. prématurés is at rank #43,089, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁe.ma.ty.ʁe\.

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 62207, this pair ranks #88,308 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of prématurée vs prématurés

Shared letters: amprtué. Private to "prématurée": e. Private to "prématurés": s.

"prématurée" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCVCVV  ·  "prématurés" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "prématurée" and "prématurés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\pʁe.ma.ty.ʁe\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "prématurée" or "prématurés" show up more?
"prématurée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,118 in our French list, against #43,089 for "prématurés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've separated the homophone pair "prématurée" / "prématurés". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "prématurée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prématurés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #88,308 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics

Confusion rank #88,308 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