Which to use
“dépassent” and “dépasses” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,476
- “dépassent” frequency rank
- #46,131
- “dépasses” frequency rank
- 55607
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dépassent | dépasses |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de dépasser. | Deuxième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de dépasser. |
Same sound, different letters: dépassent vs dépasses
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. dépassent runs 9 letters (CVCVCCVCC) against dépasses's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: dépassent vs dépasses
This is the hard kind. dépassent and dépasses are pronounced identically (\de.pas\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55607, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dépassent is recorded at frequency rank #9,476, classified as averb, pronounced \de.pas\. dépasses is at rank #46,131, 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 55607, this pair ranks #126,390 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dépassent vs dépasses
Shared letters: adepsé. Private to "dépassent": nt. Private to "dépasses": -.
"dépassent" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCC · "dépasses" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dépassent" and "dépasses" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "dépassent" vs "dépasses" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "dépassent" / "dépasses". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "dépassent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dépasses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #126,390 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dépassent" and "dépasses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dépassera vs dépasses". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #126,390 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.