Which to use
“dépendance” is a noun and “dépendante” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,654
- “dépendance” frequency rank
- #16,607
- “dépendante” frequency rank
- 22261
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dépendance | dépendante |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tout accessoire d’une chose principale, de tout ce qui tient ou se rattache à une chose sans la constituer essentiellement. | Féminin singulier de dépendant. |
Where the eye mixes dépendance and dépendante
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. dépendance and dépendante follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses dépendance with dépendante
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dépendance is \de.pɑ̃.dɑ̃s\ while dépendante is \de.pɑ̃.dɑ̃t\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - c in “dépendance” becomes t in “dépendante”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22261, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dépendance is recorded at frequency rank #5,654, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.pɑ̃.dɑ̃s\. dépendante is at rank #16,607, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.pɑ̃.dɑ̃t\.
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 22261, this pair ranks #358,959 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of dépendance vs dépendante
Shared letters: adenpé. Private to "dépendance": c. Private to "dépendante": t.
"dépendance" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCCVCCV · "dépendante" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCCVCCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dépendance" and "dépendante" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "dépendance" or "dépendante" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "dépendance" and "dépendante" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "dépendance" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dépendante" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #358,959 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dépendance" and "dépendante" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dépendante vs dépensant". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #358,959 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.