développantvsdéveloppentTell them apart

Which to use

“développant” and “développent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#13,583
“développant” frequency rank
#8,843
“développent” frequency rank
22426
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature développant développent
Definition Participe présent de développer. Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de développer.

Where the eye mixes développant and développent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence. développant and développent follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

11 ch
développant
11 ch
développent

Look-alike desk: développant vs développent

A purely visual mix-up. développant (\de.vlɔ.pɑ̃\) and développent (\de.vlɔp\) 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 a single letter - a in “développant” becomes e in “développent”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22426, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

développant is recorded at frequency rank #13,583, classified as averb, pronounced \de.vlɔ.pɑ̃\. développent is at rank #8,843, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.vlɔp\.

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 22426, this pair ranks #358,030 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of développant vs développent

Shared letters: delnoptvé. Private to "développant": a. Private to "développent": -.

"développant" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCVCCVCC  ·  "développent" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCVCCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "développant" for "développent" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\de.vlɔ.pɑ̃\ versus \de.vlɔp\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "développant" vs "développent" - which ranks higher?
"développent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,843 in our French list, against #13,583 for "développant". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "développant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "développent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #358,030 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "développant" and "développent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "développait vs développant". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #358,030 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