dansentvsdansezWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#19,502
“dansent” frequency rank
#41,215
“dansez” frequency rank
60717
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dansent dansez
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de danser. Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de danser.

Where the eye mixes dansent and dansez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. dansent runs 7 letters (CVCCVCC) against dansez's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
dansent
6 ch
dansez

Visual trap between dansent and dansez

A purely visual mix-up. dansent (\dɑ̃s\) and dansez (\dɑ̃.se\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60717, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dansent is recorded at frequency rank #19,502, classified as averb, pronounced \dɑ̃s\. dansez is at rank #41,215, tagged as averb, pronounced \dɑ̃.se\.

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 60717, this pair ranks #96,178 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dansent vs dansez

Shared letters: adens. Private to "dansent": t. Private to "dansez": z.

"dansent" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "dansez" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dansent ← adnsent · danesnt · dannsent · dansennt · dansentt · dansetn · dansnet · danssent
  • dansez ← adnsez · danesz · dannsez · dansezz · danssez · dansze · dasnez · ddansez

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dansent" for "dansez" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\dɑ̃s\ versus \dɑ̃.se\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "dansent" or "dansez" show up more?
"dansent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,502 in our French list, against #41,215 for "dansez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "dansent" and "dansez" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dansent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dansez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #96,178 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dansent" and "dansez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dancer vs dansez". 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 #96,178 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