Which to use
“subtil” and “subtile” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #12,069
- “subtil” frequency rank
- #14,159
- “subtile” frequency rank
- 26228
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | subtil | subtile |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est délié, fin, menu. | Féminin singulier de subtil. |
Same sound, different letters: subtil vs subtile
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - subtil and subtile
This is the hard kind. subtil and subtile are pronounced identically (\syp.til\) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “subtil” sits inside “subtile”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26228, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
subtil is recorded at frequency rank #12,069, classified as anadj, pronounced \syp.til\. subtile is at rank #14,159, tagged as anadj, pronounced \syp.til\.
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 26228, this pair ranks #336,343 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of subtil vs subtile
Shared letters: bilstu. Private to "subtil": -. Private to "subtile": e.
"subtil" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "subtile" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "subtil" and "subtile" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "subtil" or "subtile" show up more?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "subtil" / "subtile". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "subtil" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "subtile" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #336,343 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "subtil" and "subtile" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "subtile vs subtils". 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 #336,343 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.