subordonnévssubordonnéeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: subordonné is a adjective, subordonnée is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#29,990
“subordonné” frequency rank
#30,382
“subordonnée” frequency rank
60372
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature subordonné subordonnée
Definition Qui dépend d’un autre. Proposition subordonnée : proposition dont la syntaxe dépend d’une proposition antécédente.

Same sound, different letters: subordonné vs subordonnée

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 10 letters. subordonné runs 10 letters (CVCVCCVCCV) against subordonnée's 11 (CVCVCCVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
subordonné
11 ch
subordonnée

Ear matches; page differs - subordonné and subordonnée

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: subordonné and subordonnée carry the same recorded pronunciation, \sy.bɔʁ.dɔ.ne\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “subordonné” sits inside “subordonnée”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60372, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

subordonné is recorded at frequency rank #29,990, classified as anadj, pronounced \sy.bɔʁ.dɔ.ne\. subordonnée is at rank #30,382, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sy.bɔʁ.dɔ.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 60372, this pair ranks #97,926 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of subordonné vs subordonnée

Shared letters: bdnorsué. Private to "subordonné": -. Private to "subordonnée": e.

"subordonné" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCCVCCV  ·  "subordonnée" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCCVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "subordonné" and "subordonnée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "subordonné" is an adjective and "subordonnée" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "subordonné" or "subordonnée" show up more?
"subordonné" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,990 in our French list, against #30,382 for "subordonnée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

"subordonné" and "subordonnée" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "subordonné" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "subordonnée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #97,926 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "subordonné" and "subordonnée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "subordonnée vs subordonnés". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #97,926 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