conduirevsconduisWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,267
“conduire” frequency rank
#18,691
“conduis” frequency rank
20958
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature conduire conduis
Definition Mener, guider, diriger vers un lieu déterminé. Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de conduire.

Where the eye mixes conduire and conduis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. conduire runs 8 letters (CVCCVVCV) against conduis's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
conduire
7 ch
conduis

Why the eye confuses conduire with conduis

A purely visual mix-up. conduire (\kɔ̃.dɥiʁ\) and conduis (\kɔ̃.dɥi\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20958, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

conduire is recorded at frequency rank #2,267, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.dɥiʁ\. conduis is at rank #18,691, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.dɥi\.

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 20958, this pair ranks #365,592 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of conduire vs conduis

Shared letters: cdinou. Private to "conduire": er. Private to "conduis": s.

"conduire" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV  ·  "conduis" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • conduire ← cconduire · cnoduire · codnuire · condduire · condiure · conduier · conduirre · condurie
  • conduis ← cconduis · cnoduis · codnuis · condduis · condius · conduiss · condusi · connduis

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "conduire" and "conduis" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ̃.dɥiʁ\ versus \kɔ̃.dɥi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "conduire" or "conduis" show up more?
"conduire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,267 in our French list, against #18,691 for "conduis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "conduire" and "conduis" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "conduire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "conduis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #365,592 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "conduire" and "conduis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conduis vs conques". 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 #365,592 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