conduirevsconduisezWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,267
“conduire” frequency rank
#40,683
“conduisez” frequency rank
42950
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature conduire conduisez
Definition Mener, guider, diriger vers un lieu déterminé. Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de conduire.

Where the eye mixes conduire and conduisez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. conduire runs 8 letters (CVCCVVCV) against conduisez's 9 (CVCCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
conduire
9 ch
conduisez

Look-alike desk: conduire vs conduisez

A purely visual mix-up. conduire (\kɔ̃.dɥiʁ\) and conduisez (\kɔ̃.dɥi.ze\) 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 42950, 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\. conduisez is at rank #40,683, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.dɥi.ze\.

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 42950, this pair ranks #221,717 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of conduire vs conduisez

Shared letters: cdeinou. Private to "conduire": r. Private to "conduisez": sz.

"conduire" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV  ·  "conduisez" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • conduirecconduire · cnoduire · codnuire · condduire · condiure · conduier · conduirre · condurie
  • conduisezcconduisez · cnoduisez · codnuisez · condduisez · condiusez · conduiesz · conduisezz · conduissez

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "conduire" for "conduisez" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ̃.dɥiʁ\ versus \kɔ̃.dɥi.ze\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "conduire" or "conduisez"?
"conduire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,267 in our French list, against #40,683 for "conduisez". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "conduire" and "conduisez" 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 "conduisez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #221,717 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "conduire" and "conduisez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conduisez vs conquises". 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 #221,717 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