Which to use
“dessine” and “dessinent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,227
- “dessine” frequency rank
- #23,510
- “dessinent” frequency rank
- 31737
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dessine | dessinent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de dessiner. | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de dessiner. |
Same sound, different letters: dessine vs dessinent
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. dessine runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against dessinent's 9 (CVCCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - dessine / dessinent
This is the hard kind. dessine and dessinent are pronounced identically (\de.sin\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “dessine” sits inside “dessinent”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31737, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dessine is recorded at frequency rank #8,227, classified as averb, pronounced \de.sin\. dessinent is at rank #23,510, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.sin\.
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 31737, this pair ranks #301,882 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dessine vs dessinent
Shared letters: deins. Private to "dessine": -. Private to "dessinent": t.
"dessine" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "dessinent" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dessine" and "dessinent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "dessine" or "dessinent" show up more?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "dessine" / "dessinent". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "dessine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dessinent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #301,882 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dessine" and "dessinent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dessinent vs dessinez". 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 #301,882 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.