Which to use
“rapide” and “rapides” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,275
- “rapide” frequency rank
- #4,975
- “rapides” frequency rank
- 6250
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | rapide | rapides |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui se meut avec vitesse. | Pluriel de l’adjectif rapide. |
Same sound, different letters: rapide vs rapides
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - rapide and rapides
This is the hard kind. rapide and rapides are pronounced identically (\ʁa.pid\) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “rapide” sits inside “rapides”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6250, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
rapide is recorded at frequency rank #1,275, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʁa.pid\. rapides is at rank #4,975, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁa.pid\.
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 6250, this pair ranks #426,744 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of rapide vs rapides
Shared letters: adeipr. Private to "rapide": -. Private to "rapides": s.
"rapide" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "rapides" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "rapide" and "rapides" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "rapide" or "rapides"?
What to do next
"rapide" and "rapides" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "rapide" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "rapides" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #426,744 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "rapide" and "rapides" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rapid vs rapides". 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 #426,744 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.