Which to use
“utile” and “utiles” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,726
- “utile” frequency rank
- #4,452
- “utiles” frequency rank
- 6178
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | utile | utiles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est profitable ou avantageux ; qui sert à quelque chose. | Pluriel de utile. |
Same sound, different letters: utile vs utiles
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. utile runs 5 letters (VCVCV) against utiles's 6 (VCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - utile and utiles
This is the hard kind. utile and utiles are pronounced identically (\y.til\) 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) - “utile” sits inside “utiles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6178, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
utile is recorded at frequency rank #1,726, classified as anadj, pronounced \y.til\. utiles is at rank #4,452, tagged as anadj, pronounced \y.til\.
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 6178, this pair ranks #426,958 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of utile vs utiles
Shared letters: eiltu. Private to "utile": -. Private to "utiles": s.
"utile" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV · "utiles" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "utile" and "utiles" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "utile" vs "utiles" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "utile" / "utiles". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "utile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "utiles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #426,958 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "utile" and "utiles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ulule vs utile". 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 #426,958 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.