ruinéevsruinésWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#24,014
“ruinée” frequency rank
#37,536
“ruinés” frequency rank
61550
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ruinée ruinés
Definition Féminin singulier de ruiné. Masculin pluriel de ruiné.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set ruinée and ruinés apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
ruinée
6 ch
ruinés

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

This is the hard kind. ruinée 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 a single letter - e in “ruinée” becomes s in “ruinés”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61550, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ruinée is recorded at frequency rank #24,014, 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 61550, this pair ranks #91,659 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ruinée vs ruinés

Shared letters: inrué. Private to "ruinée": e. Private to "ruinés": s.

"ruinée" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV  ·  "ruinés" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Frequency comparison

ruinée#24,014
ruinés#37,536

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ruinée" and "ruinés" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ʁɥi.ne\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "ruinée" or "ruinés"?
"ruinée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,014 in our French list, against #37,536 for "ruinés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering ruinée vs ruinés

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “ruinée” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list