dépasseravsdépassesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#33,236
“dépassera” frequency rank
#46,131
“dépasses” frequency rank
79367
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dépassera dépasses
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du futur de dépasser. Deuxième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de dépasser.

Where the eye mixes dépassera and dépasses

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

9 ch
dépassera
8 ch
dépasses

Look-alike desk: dépassera vs dépasses

A purely visual mix-up. dépassera (\de.pa.sə.ʁa\) and dépasses (\de.pas\) 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 79367, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dépassera is recorded at frequency rank #33,236, classified as averb, pronounced \de.pa.sə.ʁa\. 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 79367, this pair ranks #23,481 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dépassera vs dépasses

Shared letters: adepsé. Private to "dépassera": r. Private to "dépasses": -.

"dépassera" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCV  ·  "dépasses" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dépassera" for "dépasses" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\de.pa.sə.ʁa\ versus \de.pas\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "dépassera" or "dépasses" show up more?
"dépassera" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,236 in our French list, against #46,131 for "dépasses". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dépassera" 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 #23,481 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dépassera" and "dépasses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dépassera vs dépasserait". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #23,481 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