Which to use
“dépassée” is an adjective and “dépensée” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #16,606
- “dépassée” frequency rank
- #43,400
- “dépensée” frequency rank
- 60006
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dépassée | dépensée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de dépassé. | Participe passé féminin singulier de dépenser. |
Where the eye mixes dépassée and dépensée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. dépassée and dépensée follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: dépassée vs dépensée
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dépassée is \de.pa.se\ while dépensée is \de.pɑ̃.se\. 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 60006, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dépassée is recorded at frequency rank #16,606, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.pa.se\. dépensée is at rank #43,400, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.pɑ̃.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 60006, this pair ranks #99,981 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of dépassée vs dépensée
Shared letters: depsé. Private to "dépassée": a. Private to "dépensée": n.
"dépassée" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV · "dépensée" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dépassée" for "dépensée" ever safe?
Frequency check: "dépassée" vs "dépensée" - which ranks higher?
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 "dépassée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dépensée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #99,981 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dépassée" and "dépensée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dépensée vs dispensée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #99,981 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.