abattuvsabattusTell them apart

Quick tell: abattu is a adjective, abattus is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“abattu” is an adjective and “abattus” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,918
“abattu” frequency rank
#14,590
“abattus” frequency rank
21508
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature abattu abattus
Definition Affaibli physiquement. Participe passé masculin pluriel du verbe abattre.

Same sound, different letters: abattu vs abattus

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. abattu runs 6 letters (VCVCCV) against abattus's 7 (VCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
abattu
7 ch
abattus

Ear matches; page differs - abattu and abattus

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: abattu and abattus carry the same recorded pronunciation, \a.ba.ty\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “abattu” sits inside “abattus”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21508, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

abattu is recorded at frequency rank #6,918, classified as anadj, pronounced \a.ba.ty\. abattus is at rank #14,590, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.ba.ty\.

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 21508, this pair ranks #362,812 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of abattu vs abattus

Shared letters: abtu. Private to "abattu": -. Private to "abattus": s.

"abattu" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV  ·  "abattus" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • abattu ← aabttu · abatu · abatut · abbattu · abtatu · baattu
  • abattus ← aabttus · abattsu · abattuss · abatus · abatuts · abbattus · abtatus · baattus

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "abattu" and "abattus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "abattu" is an adjective and "abattus" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "abattu" or "abattus" show up more?
"abattu" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,918 in our French list, against #14,590 for "abattus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "abattu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "abattus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #362,812 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "abattu" and "abattus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "abattues vs abattus". 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 #362,812 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