Which to use
“qualité” and “qualités” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #636
- “qualité” frequency rank
- #3,356
- “qualités” frequency rank
- 3992
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | qualité | qualités |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Manière d’être, bonne ou mauvaise, grande ou petite, etc., de quelque chose ou de quelqu’un, état, caractéristique. | Pluriel de qualité. |
Same sound, different letters: qualité vs qualités
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. qualité runs 7 letters (CVVCVCV) against qualités's 8 (CVVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: qualité vs qualités
This is the hard kind. qualité and qualités are pronounced identically (\ka.li.te\) 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) - “qualité” sits inside “qualités”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3992, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
qualité is recorded at frequency rank #636, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.li.te\. qualités is at rank #3,356, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ka.li.te\.
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 3992, this pair ranks #432,714 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of qualité vs qualités
Shared letters: ailqtué. Private to "qualité": -. Private to "qualités": s.
"qualité" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV · "qualités" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "qualité" for "qualités" ever safe?
Which is more common, "qualité" or "qualités"?
What to do next
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "qualité" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "qualités" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #432,714 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "qualité" and "qualités" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "qualité vs quite". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #432,714 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.