craignantvscraignonsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#14,896
“craignant” frequency rank
#40,701
“craignons” frequency rank
55597
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature craignant craignons
Definition Participe présent de craindre. Première personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de craindre.

Where the eye mixes craignant and craignons

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. craignant and craignons follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
craignant
9 ch
craignons

Visual trap between craignant and craignons

A purely visual mix-up. craignant (\kʁɛ.ɲɑ̃\) and craignons (\kʁɛ.ɲɔ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55597, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

craignant is recorded at frequency rank #14,896, classified as averb, pronounced \kʁɛ.ɲɑ̃\. craignons is at rank #40,701, tagged as averb, pronounced \kʁɛ.ɲɔ̃\.

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 55597, this pair ranks #126,479 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of craignant vs craignons

Shared letters: acginr. Private to "craignant": t. Private to "craignons": os.

"craignant" · 9 letters · shape CCVVCCVCC  ·  "craignons" · 9 letters · shape CCVVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • craignant ← carignant · ccraignant · craginant · craigannt · craiggnant · craignannt · craignantt · craignatn
  • craignons ← carignons · ccraignons · craginons · craiggnons · craignnons · craignnos · craignonns · craignonss

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "craignant" for "craignons" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kʁɛ.ɲɑ̃\ versus \kʁɛ.ɲɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "craignant" vs "craignons" - which ranks higher?
"craignant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,896 in our French list, against #40,701 for "craignons". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "craignant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "craignons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #126,479 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "craignant" and "craignons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "craignais vs craignons". 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 #126,479 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