Which to use
“dépendant” is an adjective and “dépensent” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,555
- “dépendant” frequency rank
- #23,847
- “dépensent” frequency rank
- 31402
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dépendant | dépensent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui dépend de, qui est subordonné à. | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de dépenser. |
Where the eye mixes dépendant and dépensent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. dépendant and dépensent follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses dépendant with dépensent
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dépendant is \de.pɑ̃.dɑ̃\ while dépensent is \de.pɑ̃s\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31402, 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\. dépensent is at rank #23,847, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.pɑ̃s\.
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 31402, this pair ranks #304,008 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dépendant vs dépensent
Shared letters: denpté. Private to "dépendant": a. Private to "dépensent": s.
"dépendant" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCC · "dépensent" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dépendant" for "dépensent" ever safe?
Which is more common, "dépendant" or "dépensent"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "dépendant" and "dépensent" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "dépendant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dépensent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #304,008 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dépendant" and "dépensent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dépensant vs dépensent". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #304,008 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.