construisvsconstruitesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#38,727
“construis” frequency rank
#11,743
“construites” frequency rank
50470
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature construis construites
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de construire. Participe passé féminin pluriel de construire.

Where the eye mixes construis and construites

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. construis runs 9 letters (CVCCCCVVC) against construites's 11 (CVCCCCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
construis
11 ch
construites

Visual trap between construis and construites

A purely visual mix-up. construis (\kɔ̃s.tʁɥi\) and construites (\kɔ̃s.tʁɥit\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50470, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

construis is recorded at frequency rank #38,727, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃s.tʁɥi\. construites is at rank #11,743, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃s.tʁɥit\.

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 50470, this pair ranks #162,366 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of construis vs construites

Shared letters: cinorstu. Private to "construis": -. Private to "construites": e.

"construis" · 9 letters · shape CVCCCCVVC  ·  "construites" · 11 letters · shape CVCCCCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • construis ← cconstruis · cnostruis · connstruis · consrtuis · consstruis · constrius · constrruis · construiss
  • construites ← cconstruites · cnostruites · connstruites · consrtuites · consstruites · constriutes · constrruites · construiets

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "construis" and "construites" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ̃s.tʁɥi\ versus \kɔ̃s.tʁɥit\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "construis" or "construites" show up more?
"construites" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,743 in our French list, against #38,727 for "construis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "construis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "construites" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #162,366 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "construis" and "construites" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "construis vs construisez". 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 #162,366 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