subordonnéevssubordonnésTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#30,382
“subordonnée” frequency rank
#28,763
“subordonnés” frequency rank
59145
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature subordonnée subordonnés
Definition Proposition subordonnée : proposition dont la syntaxe dépend d’une proposition antécédente. Masculin pluriel de subordonné.

Same sound, different letters: subordonnée vs subordonnés

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 10 letters. subordonnée (CVCVCCVCCVV) and subordonnés (CVCVCCVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

11 ch
subordonnée
11 ch
subordonnés

Same sound, different spelling - subordonnée / subordonnés

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: subordonnée and subordonnés carry the same recorded pronunciation, \sy.bɔʁ.dɔ.ne\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by a single letter - e in “subordonnée” becomes s in “subordonnés”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59145, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

subordonnée is recorded at frequency rank #30,382, classified as anoun, pronounced \sy.bɔʁ.dɔ.ne\. subordonnés is at rank #28,763, tagged as anadj, 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 59145, this pair ranks #104,807 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of subordonnée vs subordonnés

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

"subordonnée" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCCVCCVV  ·  "subordonnés" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "subordonnée" for "subordonnés" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "subordonnée" is a noun and "subordonnés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "subordonnée" or "subordonnés" show up more?
"subordonnés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,763 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.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "subordonnée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "subordonnés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #104,807 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "subordonnée" and "subordonnés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "subordonné vs subordonnée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #104,807 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