Which to use
“dépendant” and “dépendants” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,555
- “dépendant” frequency rank
- #19,524
- “dépendants” frequency rank
- 27079
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dépendant | dépendants |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui dépend de, qui est subordonné à. | Masculin pluriel de dépendant. |
Same sound, different letters: dépendant vs dépendants
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. dépendant runs 9 letters (CVCVCCVCC) against dépendants's 10 (CVCVCCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - dépendant and dépendants
This is the hard kind. dépendant and dépendants are pronounced identically (\de.pɑ̃.dɑ̃\) and both work as anadjective. 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 extra letter(s) - “dépendant” sits inside “dépendants”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27079, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dépendant is recorded at frequency rank #7,555, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.pɑ̃.dɑ̃\. dépendants is at rank #19,524, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.pɑ̃.dɑ̃\.
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 27079, this pair ranks #331,200 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dépendant vs dépendants
Shared letters: adenpté. Private to "dépendant": -. Private to "dépendants": s.
"dépendant" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCC · "dépendants" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCCVCCC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dépendant" for "dépendants" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "dépendant" or "dépendants" show up more?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "dépendant" / "dépendants". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "dépendant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dépendants" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #331,200 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dépendant" and "dépendants" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dépendants vs dépensant". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #331,200 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.