prolongementvsprolongementsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#9,895
“prolongement” frequency rank
#46,372
“prolongements” frequency rank
56267
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature prolongement prolongements
Definition Extension ou continuation de quelque portion d’étendue. Pluriel de prolongement.

Same sound, different letters: prolongement vs prolongements

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 12 letters. prolongement runs 12 letters (CCVCVCCVCVCC) against prolongements's 13 (CCVCVCCVCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

12 ch
prolongement
13 ch
prolongements

Homophone desk: prolongement vs prolongements

This is the hard kind. prolongement and prolongements are pronounced identically (\pʁɔ.lɔ̃ʒ.mɑ̃\) and both work as anoun. 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 extra letter(s) - “prolongement” sits inside “prolongements”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56267, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

prolongement is recorded at frequency rank #9,895, classified as anoun, pronounced \pʁɔ.lɔ̃ʒ.mɑ̃\. prolongements is at rank #46,372, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁɔ.lɔ̃ʒ.mɑ̃\.

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 56267, this pair ranks #122,166 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of prolongement vs prolongements

Shared letters: eglmnoprt. Private to "prolongement": -. Private to "prolongements": s.

"prolongement" · 12 letters · shape CCVCVCCVCVCC  ·  "prolongements" · 13 letters · shape CCVCVCCVCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • prolongement ← porlongement · pprolongement · prloongement · prollongement · prolnogement · prolognement · prolonegment · prolongeemnt
  • prolongements ← porlongements · pprolongements · prloongements · prollongements · prolnogements · prolognements · prolonegments · prolongeemnts

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "prolongement" for "prolongements" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\pʁɔ.lɔ̃ʒ.mɑ̃\), 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 "prolongement" or "prolongements" show up more?
"prolongement" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,895 in our French list, against #46,372 for "prolongements". 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 "prolongement" / "prolongements". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "prolongement" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prolongements" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #122,166 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "prolongement" and "prolongements" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prolongement vs prolongent". 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 #122,166 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