Which to use
“second” and “seconds” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #887
- “second” frequency rank
- #13,259
- “seconds” frequency rank
- 14146
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | second | seconds |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Élément ordinal, correspondant au cardinal deux ; qui vient immédiatement après le premier. | Masculin pluriel de second. |
Same sound, different letters: second vs seconds
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.
Homophone desk: second vs seconds
This is the hard kind. second and seconds are pronounced identically (\sə.ɡɔ̃\) 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) - “second” sits inside “seconds”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14146, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
second is recorded at frequency rank #887, classified as anadj, pronounced \sə.ɡɔ̃\. seconds is at rank #13,259, tagged as anadj, pronounced \sə.ɡɔ̃\.
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 14146, this pair ranks #397,992 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of second vs seconds
Shared letters: cdenos. Private to "second": -. Private to "seconds": -.
"second" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "seconds" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "second" for "seconds" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "second" or "seconds" show up more?
After this comparison
"second" and "seconds" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "second" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "seconds" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #397,992 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "second" and "seconds" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seconds vs secundo". 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 #397,992 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.