rigolevsrigolesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#7,234
“rigole” frequency rank
#13,052
“rigoles” frequency rank
20286
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rigole rigoles
Definition Petit canal creusé dans la terre ou dans la pierre, pour faire couler l’eau à travers un jardin, un pré, etc. Pluriel de rigole.

Same sound, different letters: rigole vs rigoles

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. rigole runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against rigoles's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
rigole
7 ch
rigoles

Ear matches; page differs - rigole and rigoles

This is the hard kind. rigole and rigoles are pronounced identically (\ʁi.ɡɔl\) 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) - “rigole” sits inside “rigoles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20286, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rigole is recorded at frequency rank #7,234, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁi.ɡɔl\. rigoles is at rank #13,052, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁi.ɡɔl\.

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 20286, this pair ranks #369,045 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of rigole vs rigoles

Shared letters: egilor. Private to "rigole": -. Private to "rigoles": s.

"rigole" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "rigoles" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rigole ← irgole · rgiole · riggole · rigloe · rigoel · rigolle · riogle · rrigole
  • rigoles ← irgoles · rgioles · riggoles · rigloes · rigoels · rigoless · rigolles · rigolse

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rigole" and "rigoles" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ʁi.ɡɔl\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "rigole" vs "rigoles" - which ranks higher?
"rigole" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,234 in our French list, against #13,052 for "rigoles". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

"rigole" and "rigoles" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rigole" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rigoles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #369,045 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rigole" and "rigoles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rigolais vs rigoles". 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 #369,045 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