Which to use
“tardive” and “tardives” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,674
- “tardive” frequency rank
- #26,888
- “tardives” frequency rank
- 38562
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tardive | tardives |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de tardif. | Féminin pluriel de tardif. |
Same sound, different letters: tardive vs tardives
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. tardive runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against tardives's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - tardive / tardives
This is the hard kind. tardive and tardives are pronounced identically (\taʁ.div\) 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) - “tardive” sits inside “tardives”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38562, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tardive is recorded at frequency rank #11,674, classified as anadj, pronounced \taʁ.div\. tardives is at rank #26,888, tagged as anadj, pronounced \taʁ.div\.
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 38562, this pair ranks #254,425 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of tardive vs tardives
Shared letters: adeirtv. Private to "tardive": -. Private to "tardives": s.
"tardive" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "tardives" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tardive" for "tardives" ever safe?
Which is more common, "tardive" or "tardives"?
After this comparison
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "tardive" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tardives" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #254,425 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tardive" and "tardives" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Tardieu vs tardives". 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 #254,425 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.