Which to use
“valable” and “valables” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,201
- “valable” frequency rank
- #13,932
- “valables” frequency rank
- 19133
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | valable | valables |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est acceptable, bien fondé. | Pluriel de valable. |
Same sound, different letters: valable vs valables
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - valable and valables
This is the hard kind. valable and valables are pronounced identically (\va.labl\) 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) - “valable” sits inside “valables”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19133, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
valable is recorded at frequency rank #5,201, classified as anadj, pronounced \va.labl\. valables is at rank #13,932, tagged as anadj, pronounced \va.labl\.
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 19133, this pair ranks #374,822 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of valable vs valables
Shared letters: abelv. Private to "valable": -. Private to "valables": s.
"valable" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "valables" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "valable" and "valables" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "valable" or "valables"?
What to do next
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "valable" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "valables" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #374,822 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "valable" and "valables" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "valables vs viables". 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 #374,822 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.