censésvscrisesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: censés is a adjective, crises is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“censés” is an adjective and “crises” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,654
“censés” frequency rank
#5,854
“crises” frequency rank
16508
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature censés crises
Definition Masculin pluriel de censé. Pluriel de crise.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set censés and crises apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
censés
6 ch
crises

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: censés is \sɑ̃.se\ while crises is \kʁiz\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16508, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

censés is recorded at frequency rank #10,654, classified as anadj, pronounced \sɑ̃.se\. crises is at rank #5,854, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁiz\.

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 16508, this pair ranks #387,523 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of censés vs crises

Shared letters: ces. Private to "censés": . Private to "crises": ir.

"censés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "crises" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • crisesccrises · cirses · criess · crisess · crisses · crrises · crsies · rcises

Frequency comparison

censés#10,654
crises#5,854

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "censés" and "crises" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "censés" is an adjective and "crises" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "censés" or "crises"?
"crises" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,854 in our French list, against #10,654 for "censés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering censés vs crises

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “censés”; for a noun, it's “crises”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “censés” 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