Which to use
“appui” is a noun and “appuient” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,755
- “appui” frequency rank
- #14,197
- “appuient” frequency rank
- 16952
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | appui | appuient |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ce qui sert à soutenir une chose ou une personne pour l’empêcher de tomber, de chanceler, etc. | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe appuyer. |
Same sound, different letters: appui vs appuient
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.
Homophone desk: appui vs appuient
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: appui and appuient carry the same recorded pronunciation, \a.pɥi\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 3 extra letter(s) - “appui” sits inside “appuient”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16952, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
appui is recorded at frequency rank #2,755, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.pɥi\. appuient is at rank #14,197, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.pɥi\.
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 16952, this pair ranks #385,493 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of appui vs appuient
Shared letters: aipu. Private to "appui": -. Private to "appuient": ent.
"appui" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV · "appuient" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "appui" and "appuient" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "appui" vs "appuient" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "appui" / "appuient". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "appui" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "appuient" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #385,493 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "appui" and "appuient" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "appuient vs appuiera". 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 #385,493 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.