Stress vs stressés, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“Stress” is a noun and “stressés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,423
“Stress” frequency rank: #37,572
“stressés” frequency rank: 40995
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	Stress	stressés
Definition	Stress, surmenage en général.	Masculin pluriel de stressé.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set Stress and stressés apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch

Stress

8 ch

stressés

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Stress is \ʃtʁɛs\ while stressés is \stʁɛ.se\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “Stress” sits inside “stressés”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40995, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Stress is recorded at frequency rank #3,423, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃtʁɛs\. stressés is at rank #37,572, tagged as anadj, pronounced \stʁɛ.se\.

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 40995, this pair ranks #236,364 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Stress vs stressés

Shared letters: erst. Private to "Stress": -. Private to "stressés": é.

"Stress" · 6 letters · shape CCCVCC · "stressés" · 8 letters · shape CCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

Stress ← srtess · sstress · sterss · stres · strress · strses · sttress · tsress

Frequency comparison

Stress#3,423

stressés#37,572

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Stress" and "stressés" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Stress" is a noun and "stressés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "Stress" or "stressés"?

"Stress" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,423 in our French list, against #37,572 for "stressés". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering Stress vs stressés

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “Stress”; for an adjective, it's “stressés”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “Stress” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable