accélérantvsaccélèrentWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#38,121
“accélérant” frequency rank
#33,958
“accélèrent” frequency rank
72079
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature accélérant accélèrent
Definition Qui accélère. Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe accélérer.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set accélérant and accélèrent apart are highlighted. They share 8 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

10 ch
accélérant
10 ch
accélèrent

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: accélérant is \ak.se.le.ʁɑ̃\ while accélèrent is \ak.se.lɛʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72079, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

accélérant is recorded at frequency rank #38,121, classified as anadj, pronounced \ak.se.le.ʁɑ̃\. accélèrent is at rank #33,958, tagged as averb, pronounced \ak.se.lɛʁ\.

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 72079, this pair ranks #45,285 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of accélérant vs accélèrent

Shared letters: aclnrté. Private to "accélérant": -. Private to "accélèrent": .

"accélérant" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVCC  ·  "accélèrent" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVCC

Frequency comparison

accélérant#38,121
accélèrent#33,958

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "accélérant" and "accélèrent" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "accélérant" is an adjective and "accélèrent" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "accélérant" or "accélèrent"?
"accélèrent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,958 in our French list, against #38,121 for "accélérant". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering accélérant vs accélèrent

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “accélérant”; for a verb, it's “accélèrent”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “accélérant” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list