télécommunicationvstélécommunicationsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“télécommunication” and “télécommunications” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#28,387
“télécommunication” frequency rank
#9,572
“télécommunications” frequency rank
37959
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature télécommunication télécommunications
Definition Transmission, émission et réception à distance, de signes, de signaux, d’écrits, d’images, de sons ou de renseignements de toutes natures, par fil, radioélectricité, optique ou autres systèmes. Pluriel de télécommunication.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set télécommunication and télécommunications apart are highlighted. They share 17 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

17 ch
télécommunication
18 ch
télécommunications

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

This is the hard kind. télécommunication and télécommunications are pronounced identically (\te.le.kɔ.my.ni.ka.sjɔ̃\) and both work as anoun. 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) - “télécommunication” sits inside “télécommunications”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37959, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

télécommunication is recorded at frequency rank #28,387, classified as anoun, pronounced \te.le.kɔ.my.ni.ka.sjɔ̃\. télécommunications is at rank #9,572, tagged as anoun, pronounced \te.le.kɔ.my.ni.ka.sjɔ̃\.

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 37959, this pair ranks #258,737 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of télécommunication vs télécommunications

Shared letters: acilmnotué. Private to "télécommunication": -. Private to "télécommunications": s.

"télécommunication" · 17 letters · shape CVCVCVCCVCVCVCVVC  ·  "télécommunications" · 18 letters · shape CVCVCVCCVCVCVCVVCC

Frequency comparison

télécommunication#28,387
télécommunications#9,572

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "télécommunication" and "télécommunications" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\te.le.kɔ.my.ni.ka.sjɔ̃\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "télécommunication" or "télécommunications"?
"télécommunications" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,572 in our French list, against #28,387 for "télécommunication". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering télécommunication vs télécommunications

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list