Which to use
“dépendants” and “descendants” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,524
- “dépendants” frequency rank
- #8,095
- “descendants” frequency rank
- 27619
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dépendants | descendants |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Masculin pluriel de dépendant. | Masculin pluriel de descendant. |
Where the eye mixes dépendants and descendants
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. dépendants runs 10 letters (CVCVCCVCCC) against descendants's 11 (CVCCVCCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: dépendants vs descendants
A purely visual mix-up. dépendants (\de.pɑ̃.dɑ̃\) and descendants (\de.sɑ̃.dɑ̃\) 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 27619, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dépendants is recorded at frequency rank #19,524, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.pɑ̃.dɑ̃\. descendants is at rank #8,095, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.sɑ̃.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 27619, this pair ranks #327,878 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dépendants vs descendants
Shared letters: adenst. Private to "dépendants": pé. Private to "descendants": c.
"dépendants" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCCVCCC · "descendants" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- descendants ← ddescendants · decsendants · desccendants · descednants · descenadnts · descendannts · descendanst · descendantss
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dépendants" and "descendants" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "dépendants" or "descendants" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "dépendants" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "descendants" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #327,878 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dépendants" and "descendants" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dépendants vs dépensant". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #327,878 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.