stagesvsstatuesTell them apart

Which to use

“stages” and “statues” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#8,464
“stages” frequency rank
#8,931
“statues” frequency rank
17395
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature stages statues
Definition Pluriel de stage. Pluriel de statue.

Where the eye mixes stages and statues

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
stages
7 ch
statues

Why the eye confuses stages with statues

A purely visual mix-up. stages (\staʒ\) and statues (\sta.ty\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17395, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

stages is recorded at frequency rank #8,464, classified as anoun, pronounced \staʒ\. statues is at rank #8,931, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sta.ty\.

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 17395, this pair ranks #383,382 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of stages vs statues

Shared letters: aest. Private to "stages": g. Private to "statues": u.

"stages" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "statues" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • stagessatges · sstages · staegs · stagess · stagges · stagse · stgaes · sttages
  • statuessattues · sstatues · stateus · stattues · statuess · statuse · stautes · sttatues

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "stages" for "statues" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\staʒ\ versus \sta.ty\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "stages" or "statues" show up more?
"stages" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,464 in our French list, against #8,931 for "statues". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "stages" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "statues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #383,382 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "stages" and "statues" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stalles vs statues". 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 #383,382 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