débordéevsdébordentWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#34,992
“débordée” frequency rank
#31,454
“débordent” frequency rank
66446
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature débordée débordent
Definition Féminin singulier de débordé. Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de déborder.

Where the eye mixes débordée and débordent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. débordée runs 8 letters (CVCVCCVV) against débordent's 9 (CVCVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
débordée
9 ch
débordent

Look-alike desk: débordée vs débordent

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: débordée is \de.bɔʁ.de\ while débordent is \de.bɔʁd\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66446, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

débordée is recorded at frequency rank #34,992, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.bɔʁ.de\. débordent is at rank #31,454, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.bɔʁd\.

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 66446, this pair ranks #67,796 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of débordée vs débordent

Shared letters: bdeoré. Private to "débordée": -. Private to "débordent": nt.

"débordée" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV  ·  "débordent" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "débordée" and "débordent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "débordée" is an adjective and "débordent" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "débordée" vs "débordent" - which ranks higher?
"débordent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,454 in our French list, against #34,992 for "débordée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "débordée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "débordent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #67,796 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "débordée" and "débordent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "débordée vs déportée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #67,796 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