Which to use
“spontané” and “spontanées” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,993
- “spontané” frequency rank
- #31,749
- “spontanées” frequency rank
- 51742
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | spontané | spontanées |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Que l’on fait de soi-même, de façon autonome. | Féminin pluriel de spontané. |
Same sound, different letters: spontané vs spontanées
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. spontané runs 8 letters (CCVCCVCV) against spontanées's 10 (CCVCCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - spontané and spontanées
This is the hard kind. spontané and spontanées are pronounced identically (\spɔ̃.ta.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 2 extra letter(s) - “spontané” sits inside “spontanées”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51742, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
spontané is recorded at frequency rank #19,993, classified as anadj, pronounced \spɔ̃.ta.ne\. spontanées is at rank #31,749, tagged as anadj, pronounced \spɔ̃.ta.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 51742, this pair ranks #152,799 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of spontané vs spontanées
Shared letters: anopsté. Private to "spontané": -. Private to "spontanées": e.
"spontané" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCV · "spontanées" · 10 letters · shape CCVCCVCVVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "spontané" for "spontanées" ever safe?
Which is more common, "spontané" or "spontanées"?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "spontané" / "spontanées". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "spontané" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "spontanées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #152,799 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "spontané" and "spontanées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "spontanées vs spontanés". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #152,799 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.