terminéesvstraînéesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#16,497
“terminées” frequency rank
#42,095
“traînées” frequency rank
58592
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature terminées traînées
Definition Féminin pluriel de terminé. Féminin pluriel de traîné.

Where the eye mixes terminées and traînées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. terminées runs 9 letters (CVCCVCVVC) against traînées's 8 (CCVVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
terminées
8 ch
traînées

Why the eye confuses terminées with traînées

A purely visual mix-up. terminées (\tɛʁ.mi.ne\) and traînées (\tʁe.ne\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58592, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

terminées is recorded at frequency rank #16,497, classified as anadj, pronounced \tɛʁ.mi.ne\. traînées is at rank #42,095, tagged as anadj, pronounced \tʁe.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 58592, this pair ranks #108,165 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of terminées vs traînées

Shared letters: enrsté. Private to "terminées": im. Private to "traînées": aî.

"terminées" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVVC  ·  "traînées" · 8 letters · shape CCVVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "terminées" for "traînées" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\tɛʁ.mi.ne\ versus \tʁe.ne\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "terminées" vs "traînées" - which ranks higher?
"terminées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,497 in our French list, against #42,095 for "traînées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "terminées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "traînées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #108,165 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "terminées" and "traînées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tracées vs traînées". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #108,165 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