Which to use
“terminal” is an adjective and “terminés” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,167
- “terminal” frequency rank
- #15,522
- “terminés” frequency rank
- 23689
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | terminal | terminés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui termine une chose, qui en occupe ou en forme l’extrémité. | Participe passé masculin pluriel verbe terminer. |
Where the eye mixes terminal and terminés
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. terminal and terminés follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses terminal with terminés
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: terminal is \tɛʁ.mi.nal\ while terminés is \tɛʁ.mi.ne\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23689, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
terminal is recorded at frequency rank #8,167, classified as anadj, pronounced \tɛʁ.mi.nal\. terminés is at rank #15,522, tagged as averb, pronounced \tɛʁ.mi.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 23689, this pair ranks #351,008 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of terminal vs terminés
Shared letters: eimnrt. Private to "terminal": al. Private to "terminés": sé.
"terminal" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC · "terminés" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- terminal ← etrminal · temrinal · terimnal · termianl · terminall · terminla · terminnal · termminal
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "terminal" and "terminés" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "terminal" or "terminés" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "terminal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "terminés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #351,008 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "terminal" and "terminés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "terminés vs terrine". 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 #351,008 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.