connaissent vs connaisses

Which to use

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

#2,667
“connaissent” frequency rank: #42,804
“connaisses” frequency rank: 45471
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	connaissent	connaisses
Definition	Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de connaître (ou connaitre).	Deuxième personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de connaître (ou connaitre).

Same sound, different letters: connaissent vs connaisses

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. connaissent runs 11 letters (CVCCVVCCVCC) against connaisses's 10 (CVCCVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

11 ch

connaissent

10 ch

connaisses

Same sound, different spelling - connaissent / connaisses

This is the hard kind. connaissent and connaisses are pronounced identically (\kɔ.nɛs\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45471, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

connaissent is recorded at frequency rank #2,667, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ.nɛs\. connaisses is at rank #42,804, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ.nɛs\.

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 45471, this pair ranks #202,477 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of connaissent vs connaisses

Shared letters: aceinos. Private to "connaissent": t. Private to "connaisses": -.

"connaissent" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVVCCVCC · "connaisses" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

connaissent ← cconnaissent · cnonaissent · conaissent · conanissent · connaisent · connaisesnt · connaissennt · connaissentt
connaisses ← cconnaisses · cnonaisses · conaisses · conanisses · connaisess · connaissess · connaissse · connasises

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "connaissent" for "connaisses" ever safe?

No. They are pronounced the same (\kɔ.nɛs\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.

Frequency check: "connaissent" vs "connaisses" - which ranks higher?

"connaissent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,667 in our French list, against #42,804 for "connaisses". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "connaissent" / "connaisses". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

Full dictionary entry for "connaissent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "connaisses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #202,477 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"connaissent" and "connaisses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "connaisses vs connaissiez". 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 #202,477 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.