conservervsconservésConfusable pair

Quick tell: conserver is a verb, conservés is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“conserver” is a verb and “conservés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,817
“conserver” frequency rank
#10,474
“conservés” frequency rank
13291
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature conserver conservés
Definition Maintenir en bon état ; apporter le soin nécessaire pour empêcher qu’une chose ne se gâte ou ne dépérisse. Masculin pluriel de conservé.

Same sound, different letters: conserver vs conservés

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. conserver and conservés follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
conserver
9 ch
conservés

Homophone desk: conserver vs conservés

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: conserver and conservés carry the same recorded pronunciation, \kɔ̃.sɛʁ.ve\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13291, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

conserver is recorded at frequency rank #2,817, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.sɛʁ.ve\. conservés is at rank #10,474, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kɔ̃.sɛʁ.ve\.

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 13291, this pair ranks #401,612 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of conserver vs conservés

Shared letters: cenorsv. Private to "conserver": -. Private to "conservés": é.

"conserver" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC  ·  "conservés" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • conservercconserver · cnoserver · conesrver · connserver · conserevr · conserrver · conserverr · conservre

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "conserver" and "conservés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "conserver" is a verb and "conservés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "conserver" or "conservés"?
"conserver" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,817 in our French list, against #10,474 for "conservés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "conserver" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "conservés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #401,612 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "conserver" and "conservés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conférés vs conservés". 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 #401,612 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