Which to use
“privé” and “privées” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,273
- “privé” frequency rank
- #3,788
- “privées” frequency rank
- 5061
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | privé | privées |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Particulier, sans caractère public. | Féminin pluriel de privé. |
Same sound, different letters: privé vs privées
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. privé runs 5 letters (CCVCV) against privées's 7 (CCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: privé vs privées
This is the hard kind. privé and privées are pronounced identically (\pʁi.ve\) 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) - “privé” sits inside “privées”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5061, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
privé is recorded at frequency rank #1,273, classified as anadj, pronounced \pʁi.ve\. privées is at rank #3,788, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁi.ve\.
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 5061, this pair ranks #430,018 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of privé vs privées
Shared letters: iprvé. Private to "privé": -. Private to "privées": es.
"privé" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "privées" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "privé" and "privées" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "privé" or "privées" show up more?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "privé" / "privées". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "privé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "privées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #430,018 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "privé" and "privées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "priée vs privées". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #430,018 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.