prisonniervsprisonniersWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#5,171
“prisonnier” frequency rank
#3,489
“prisonniers” frequency rank
8660
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prisonnier prisonniers
Definition Personne qui est arrêtée pour être mise en prison, ou qui y est détenue. Masculin pluriel de prisonnier.

Same sound, different letters: prisonnier vs prisonniers

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 10 letters. prisonnier runs 10 letters (CCVCVCCVVC) against prisonniers's 11 (CCVCVCCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
prisonnier
11 ch
prisonniers

Homophone desk: prisonnier vs prisonniers

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: prisonnier and prisonniers carry the same recorded pronunciation, \pʁi.zɔ.nje\. 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) - “prisonnier” sits inside “prisonniers”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8660, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prisonnier is recorded at frequency rank #5,171, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁi.zɔ.nje\. prisonniers is at rank #3,489, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁi.zɔ.nje\.

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 8660, this pair ranks #419,264 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of prisonnier vs prisonniers

Shared letters: einoprs. Private to "prisonnier": -. Private to "prisonniers": -.

"prisonnier" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCCVVC  ·  "prisonniers" · 11 letters · shape CCVCVCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • prisonnier ← pirsonnier · pprisonnier · priosnnier · prisnonier · prisonier · prisoniner · prisonneir · prisonnierr
  • prisonniers ← pirsonniers · pprisonniers · priosnniers · prisnoniers · prisoniers · prisoniners · prisonneirs · prisonnierrs

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "prisonnier" and "prisonniers" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "prisonnier" is a noun and "prisonniers" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "prisonnier" or "prisonniers"?
"prisonniers" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,489 in our French list, against #5,171 for "prisonnier". 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 "prisonnier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prisonniers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #419,264 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "prisonnier" and "prisonniers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prisonnier vs prisonnières". 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 #419,264 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