dépendancevsdépendantesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: dépendance is a noun, dépendantes is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dépendance” is a noun and “dépendantes” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,654
“dépendance” frequency rank
#23,188
“dépendantes” frequency rank
28842
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dépendance dépendantes
Definition Tout accessoire d’une chose principale, de tout ce qui tient ou se rattache à une chose sans la constituer essentiellement. Féminin pluriel de dépendant.

Where the eye mixes dépendance and dépendantes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. dépendance runs 10 letters (CVCVCCVCCV) against dépendantes's 11 (CVCVCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
dépendance
11 ch
dépendantes

Look-alike desk: dépendance vs dépendantes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dépendance is \de.pɑ̃.dɑ̃s\ while dépendantes is \de.pɑ̃.dɑ̃t\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28842, 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\. dépendantes is at rank #23,188, 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 28842, this pair ranks #320,320 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dépendance vs dépendantes

Shared letters: adenpé. Private to "dépendance": c. Private to "dépendantes": st.

"dépendance" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCCVCCV  ·  "dépendantes" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dépendance" and "dépendantes" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dépendance" is a noun and "dépendantes" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dépendance" or "dépendantes"?
"dépendance" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,654 in our French list, against #23,188 for "dépendantes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "dépendance" and "dépendantes" 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 "dépendantes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #320,320 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dépendance" and "dépendantes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dépendantes vs dépendants". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #320,320 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