violettevsviolettesWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#12,281
“violette” frequency rank
#28,401
“violettes” frequency rank
40682
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature violette violettes
Definition Plante herbacée vivace de la famille des violacées appartenant au genre Viola. Féminin pluriel de violet.

Same sound, different letters: violette vs violettes

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. violette runs 8 letters (CVVCVCCV) against violettes's 9 (CVVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
violette
9 ch
violettes

Same sound, different spelling - violette / violettes

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: violette and violettes carry the same recorded pronunciation, \vjɔ.lɛt\. 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) - “violette” sits inside “violettes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40682, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

violette is recorded at frequency rank #12,281, classified as anoun, pronounced \vjɔ.lɛt\. violettes is at rank #28,401, tagged as anadj, pronounced \vjɔ.lɛt\.

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 40682, this pair ranks #238,735 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of violette vs violettes

Shared letters: eilotv. Private to "violette": -. Private to "violettes": s.

"violette" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCCV  ·  "violettes" · 9 letters · shape CVVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • violette ← ivolette · viloette · vioeltte · violete · violetet · viollette · violtete · voilette
  • violettes ← ivolettes · viloettes · vioelttes · violetes · violetets · violettess · violettse · viollettes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "violette" for "violettes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "violette" is a noun and "violettes" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "violette" vs "violettes" - which ranks higher?
"violette" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,281 in our French list, against #28,401 for "violettes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "violette" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "violettes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #238,735 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "violette" and "violettes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "violetta vs violettes". 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 #238,735 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