agissentvsagissonsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“agissent” and “agissons” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#9,590
“agissent” frequency rank
#29,624
“agissons” frequency rank
39214
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature agissent agissons
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de agir. Première personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de agir.

Where the eye mixes agissent and agissons

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. agissent and agissons follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
agissent
8 ch
agissons

Look-alike desk: agissent vs agissons

A purely visual mix-up. agissent (\a.ʒis\) and agissons (\a.ʒi.sɔ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39214, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

agissent is recorded at frequency rank #9,590, classified as averb, pronounced \a.ʒis\. agissons is at rank #29,624, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.ʒi.sɔ̃\.

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 39214, this pair ranks #249,621 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of agissent vs agissons

Shared letters: agins. Private to "agissent": et. Private to "agissons": o.

"agissent" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVCC  ·  "agissons" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • agissent ← aggissent · agisent · agisesnt · agissennt · agissentt · agissetn · agissnet · agsisent
  • agissons ← aggissons · agisons · agisosns · agissnos · agissonns · agissonss · agissosn · agsisons

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "agissent" and "agissons" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\a.ʒis\ versus \a.ʒi.sɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "agissent" or "agissons" show up more?
"agissent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,590 in our French list, against #29,624 for "agissons". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "agissent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "agissons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #249,621 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "agissent" and "agissons" 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 #249,621 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