tombéevstombéesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: tombée is a noun, tombées is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tombée” is a noun and “tombées” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,292
“tombée” frequency rank
#18,345
“tombées” frequency rank
22637
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tombée tombées
Definition Chute, mouvement de ce qui tombe, au propre ou au figuré, ou survenue d'un évènement. Féminin pluriel de tombé.

Same sound, different letters: tombée vs tombées

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.

6 ch
tombée
7 ch
tombées

Same sound, different spelling - tombée / tombées

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: tombée and tombées carry the same recorded pronunciation, \tɔ̃.be\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “tombée” sits inside “tombées”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22637, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tombée is recorded at frequency rank #4,292, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɔ̃.be\. tombées is at rank #18,345, tagged as anadj, pronounced \tɔ̃.be\.

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 22637, this pair ranks #356,908 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tombée vs tombées

Shared letters: bemoté. Private to "tombée": -. Private to "tombées": s.

"tombée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "tombées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "tombée" and "tombées" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tombée" is a noun and "tombées" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "tombée" vs "tombées" - which ranks higher?
"tombée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,292 in our French list, against #18,345 for "tombées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "tombée" / "tombées". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tombée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tombées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #356,908 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tombée" and "tombées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tombais vs tombées". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #356,908 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