simulévssimulerTell them apart

Quick tell: simulé is a adjective, simuler is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“simulé” is an adjective and “simuler” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#32,194
“simulé” frequency rank
#17,817
“simuler” frequency rank
50011
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature simulé simuler
Definition Fictif, ayant fait l’objet d’une simulation. Feindre, imiter, faire paraître réelle une chose qui n’est pas.

Same sound, different letters: simulé vs simuler

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.

6 ch
simulé
7 ch
simuler

Same sound, different spelling - simulé / simuler

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: simulé and simuler carry the same recorded pronunciation, \si.my.le\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50011, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

simulé is recorded at frequency rank #32,194, classified as anadj, pronounced \si.my.le\. simuler is at rank #17,817, tagged as averb, pronounced \si.my.le\.

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 50011, this pair ranks #165,993 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of simulé vs simuler

Shared letters: ilmsu. Private to "simulé": é. Private to "simuler": er.

"simulé" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "simuler" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • simulerismuler · simluer · simmuler · simuelr · simulerr · simuller · simulre · siumler

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "simulé" and "simuler" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "simulé" is an adjective and "simuler" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "simulé" or "simuler" show up more?
"simuler" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,817 in our French list, against #32,194 for "simulé". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "simulé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "simuler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #165,993 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "simulé" and "simuler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "simply vs simulé". 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 #165,993 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list