Which to use
“scandal” and “scandales” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #39,035
- “scandal” frequency rank
- #12,050
- “scandales” frequency rank
- 51085
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | scandal | scandales |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Scandale. | Pluriel de scandale. |
Where the eye mixes scandal and scandales
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. scandal runs 7 letters (CCVCCVC) against scandales's 9 (CCVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between scandal and scandales
A purely visual mix-up. scandal (\ˈskændəl\) and scandales (\skɑ̃.dal\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “scandal” sits inside “scandales”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51085, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
scandal is recorded at frequency rank #39,035, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈskændəl\. scandales is at rank #12,050, tagged as anoun, pronounced \skɑ̃.dal\.
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 51085, this pair ranks #157,718 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of scandal vs scandales
Shared letters: acdlns. Private to "scandal": -. Private to "scandales": e.
"scandal" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "scandales" · 9 letters · shape CCVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "scandal" and "scandales" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "scandal" or "scandales" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "scandal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "scandales" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #157,718 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "scandal" and "scandales" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "scandal vs scandale". 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 #157,718 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.