apparuvsapparusWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#6,365
“apparu” frequency rank
#16,063
“apparus” frequency rank
22428
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature apparu apparus
Definition Masculin singulier du participe passé du verbe apparaître. Participe passé masculin pluriel de apparaître (ou apparaitre).

Same sound, different letters: apparu vs apparus

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.

6 ch
apparu
7 ch
apparus

Ear matches; page differs - apparu and apparus

This is the hard kind. apparu and apparus are pronounced identically (\a.pa.ʁy\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “apparu” sits inside “apparus”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22428, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

apparu is recorded at frequency rank #6,365, classified as averb, pronounced \a.pa.ʁy\. apparus is at rank #16,063, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.pa.ʁy\.

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 22428, this pair ranks #358,017 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of apparu vs apparus

Shared letters: apru. Private to "apparu": -. Private to "apparus": s.

"apparu" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "apparus" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • apparuapapru · aparu · apparru · appaur · apprau · paparu
  • apparusapaprus · aparus · apparrus · apparsu · apparuss · appaurs · appraus · paparus

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "apparu" and "apparus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\a.pa.ʁy\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "apparu" vs "apparus" - which ranks higher?
"apparu" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,365 in our French list, against #16,063 for "apparus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "apparu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "apparus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #358,017 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "apparu" and "apparus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "apparus vs appâts". 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 #358,017 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