Which to use
“ruisseau” and “ruisseaux” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,781
- “ruisseau” frequency rank
- #19,669
- “ruisseaux” frequency rank
- 30450
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ruisseau | ruisseaux |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cours d’eau d’une largeur trop peu considérable pour recevoir le nom de rivière. | Pluriel de ruisseau. |
Same sound, different letters: ruisseau vs ruisseaux
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. ruisseau runs 8 letters (CVVCCVVV) against ruisseaux's 9 (CVVCCVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - ruisseau / ruisseaux
This is the hard kind. ruisseau and ruisseaux are pronounced identically (\ʁɥi.so\) 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) - “ruisseau” sits inside “ruisseaux”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30450, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ruisseau is recorded at frequency rank #10,781, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁɥi.so\. ruisseaux is at rank #19,669, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁɥi.so\.
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 30450, this pair ranks #310,243 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ruisseau vs ruisseaux
Shared letters: aeirsu. Private to "ruisseau": -. Private to "ruisseaux": x.
"ruisseau" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVV · "ruisseaux" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ruisseau" and "ruisseaux" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "ruisseau" or "ruisseaux" show up more?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "ruisseau" / "ruisseaux". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "ruisseau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ruisseaux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #310,243 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ruisseau" and "ruisseaux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rousseau vs ruisseau". 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 #310,243 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.