croyantvscroyonsWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: croyant is a adjective, croyons is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#7,294
“croyant” frequency rank
#11,750
“croyons” frequency rank
19044
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature croyant croyons
Definition Qui croit ce que sa religion enseigne. Première personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de croire.

Where the eye mixes croyant and croyons

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. croyant and croyons follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVVVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
croyant
7 ch
croyons

Look-alike desk: croyant vs croyons

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: croyant is \kʁwa.jɑ̃\ while croyons is \kʁwa.jɔ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19044, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

croyant is recorded at frequency rank #7,294, classified as anadj, pronounced \kʁwa.jɑ̃\. croyons is at rank #11,750, tagged as averb, pronounced \kʁwa.jɔ̃\.

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 19044, this pair ranks #375,317 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of croyant vs croyons

Shared letters: cnory. Private to "croyant": at. Private to "croyons": s.

"croyant" · 7 letters · shape CCVVVCC  ·  "croyons" · 7 letters · shape CCVVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • croyant ← ccroyant · coryant · croaynt · croyannt · croyantt · croyatn · croynat · croyyant
  • croyons ← ccroyons · coryons · crooyns · croynos · croyonns · croyonss · croyosn · croyyons

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "croyant" and "croyons" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "croyant" is an adjective and "croyons" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "croyant" or "croyons"?
"croyant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,294 in our French list, against #11,750 for "croyons". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "croyant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "croyons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #375,317 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "croyant" and "croyons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "canyons vs croyons". 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 #375,317 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