Which to use
“agissant” is an adjective and “agissent” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,024
- “agissant” frequency rank
- #9,590
- “agissent” frequency rank
- 16614
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | agissant | agissent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui agit, qui se donne beaucoup de mouvement. | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de agir. |
Where the eye mixes agissant and agissent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. agissant and agissent follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses agissant with agissent
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: agissant is \a.ʒi.sɑ̃\ while agissent is \a.ʒis\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “agissant” becomes e in “agissent”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16614, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
agissant is recorded at frequency rank #7,024, classified as anadj, pronounced \a.ʒi.sɑ̃\. agissent is at rank #9,590, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.ʒis\.
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 16614, this pair ranks #387,019 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of agissant vs agissent
Shared letters: aginst. Private to "agissant": -. Private to "agissent": e.
"agissant" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVCC · "agissent" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "agissant" and "agissent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "agissant" or "agissent" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "agissant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "agissent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #387,019 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "agissant" and "agissent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "agissaient vs agissent". 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 #387,019 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.