constituervsconstituésConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#5,118
“constituer” frequency rank
#12,937
“constitués” frequency rank
18055
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature constituer constitués
Definition Concourir, avec d’autres éléments, à former une chose en un tout ou l’essence d’une chose. Masculin pluriel de constitué.

Same sound, different letters: constituer vs constitués

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters.

10 ch
constituer
10 ch
constitués

Same sound, different spelling - constituer / constitués

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: constituer and constitués carry the same recorded pronunciation, \kɔ̃s.ti.tɥe\. 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 18055, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

constituer is recorded at frequency rank #5,118, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃s.ti.tɥe\. constitués is at rank #12,937, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kɔ̃s.ti.tɥe\.

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 18055, this pair ranks #380,216 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of constituer vs constitués

Shared letters: cinostu. Private to "constituer": er. Private to "constitués": é.

"constituer" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVCVVC  ·  "constitués" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • constituercconstituer · cnostituer · connstituer · consittuer · consstituer · constiteur · constittuer · constituerr

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "constituer" for "constitués" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "constituer" is a verb and "constitués" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "constituer" vs "constitués" - which ranks higher?
"constituer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,118 in our French list, against #12,937 for "constitués". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "constituer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "constitués" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #380,216 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "constituer" and "constitués" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "constitua vs constitués". 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 #380,216 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