Which to use
“dépassement” is a noun and “dépassent” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,557
- “dépassement” frequency rank
- #9,476
- “dépassent” frequency rank
- 22033
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dépassement | dépassent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de dépasser et spécialement d’outrepasser. | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de dépasser. |
Where the eye mixes dépassement and dépassent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. dépassement runs 11 letters (CVCVCCVCVCC) against dépassent's 9 (CVCVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: dépassement vs dépassent
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dépassement is \de.pas.mɑ̃\ while dépassent is \de.pas\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22033, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dépassement is recorded at frequency rank #12,557, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.pas.mɑ̃\. dépassent is at rank #9,476, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.pas\.
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 22033, this pair ranks #360,127 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of dépassement vs dépassent
Shared letters: adenpsté. Private to "dépassement": m. Private to "dépassent": -.
"dépassement" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCCVCVCC · "dépassent" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dépassement" and "dépassent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "dépassement" or "dépassent" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "dépassement" and "dépassent" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "dépassement" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dépassent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #360,127 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dépassement" and "dépassent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dépassent vs déplaisent". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #360,127 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.