Which to use
“ruiné” and “ruinés” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,469
- “ruiné” frequency rank
- #37,536
- “ruinés” frequency rank
- 51005
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ruiné | ruinés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui a perdu sa fortune. | Masculin pluriel de ruiné. |
Same sound, different letters: ruiné vs ruinés
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. ruiné runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against ruinés's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - ruiné / ruinés
This is the hard kind. ruiné and ruinés are pronounced identically (\ʁɥi.ne\) 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) - “ruiné” sits inside “ruinés”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51005, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ruiné is recorded at frequency rank #13,469, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʁɥi.ne\. ruinés is at rank #37,536, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁɥi.ne\.
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 51005, this pair ranks #158,292 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ruiné vs ruinés
Shared letters: inrué. Private to "ruiné": -. Private to "ruinés": s.
"ruiné" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "ruinés" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "ruiné" and "ruinés" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "ruiné" or "ruinés" show up more?
What to do next
"ruiné" and "ruinés" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "ruiné" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ruinés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #158,292 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ruiné" and "ruinés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ruinés vs Rune". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #158,292 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.