Which to use
“principal” and “principales” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,233
- “principal” frequency rank
- #2,330
- “principales” frequency rank
- 3563
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | principal | principales |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est le premier, le plus considérable, le plus remarquable en son genre. | Féminin pluriel de principal. |
Same sound, different letters: principal vs principales
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. principal runs 9 letters (CCVCCVCVC) against principales's 11 (CCVCCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: principal vs principales
This is the hard kind. principal and principales are pronounced identically (\pʁɛ̃.si.pal\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “principal” sits inside “principales”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3563, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
principal is recorded at frequency rank #1,233, classified as anadj, pronounced \pʁɛ̃.si.pal\. principales is at rank #2,330, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁɛ̃.si.pal\.
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 3563, this pair ranks #433,735 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of principal vs principales
Shared letters: acilnpr. Private to "principal": -. Private to "principales": es.
"principal" · 9 letters · shape CCVCCVCVC · "principales" · 11 letters · shape CCVCCVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- principal ← pirncipal · pprincipal · pricnipal · princcipal · princiapl · principall · principla · princippal
- principales ← pirncipales · pprincipales · pricnipales · princcipales · princiaples · principaels · principaless · principalles
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "principal" for "principales" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "principal" or "principales" show up more?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "principal" / "principales". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "principal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "principales" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #433,735 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "principal" and "principales" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "principales vs principautés". 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 #433,735 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.