Which to use
“collent” is a verb and “colles” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23,140
- “collent” frequency rank
- #25,596
- “colles” frequency rank
- 48736
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | collent | colles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de coller. | Pluriel de colle. |
Same sound, different letters: collent vs colles
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - collent and colles
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: collent and colles carry the same recorded pronunciation, \kɔl\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48736, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
collent is recorded at frequency rank #23,140, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔl\. colles is at rank #25,596, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔl\.
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 48736, this pair ranks #176,434 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of collent vs colles
Shared letters: celo. Private to "collent": nt. Private to "colles": s.
"collent" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "colles" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "collent" for "colles" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "collent" or "colles" show up more?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "collent" / "colles". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "collent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "colles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #176,434 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "collent" and "colles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "colla vs colles". 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 #176,434 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.