étonnervsétonnezConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#8,801
“étonner” frequency rank
#41,614
“étonnez” frequency rank
50415
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature étonner étonnez
Definition Ébranler à la manière du tonnerre. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de étonner.

Same sound, different letters: étonner vs étonnez

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. étonner and étonnez follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
étonner
7 ch
étonnez

Ear matches; page differs - étonner and étonnez

This is the hard kind. étonner and étonnez are pronounced identically (\e.tɔ.ne\) 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 a single letter - r in “étonner” becomes z in “étonnez”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50415, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

étonner is recorded at frequency rank #8,801, classified as averb, pronounced \e.tɔ.ne\. étonnez is at rank #41,614, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.tɔ.ne\.

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 50415, this pair ranks #162,844 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of étonner vs étonnez

Shared letters: enoté. Private to "étonner": r. Private to "étonnez": z.

"étonner" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC  ·  "étonnez" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "étonner" and "étonnez" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\e.tɔ.ne\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "étonner" vs "étonnez" - which ranks higher?
"étonner" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,801 in our French list, against #41,614 for "étonnez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "étonner" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "étonnez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #162,844 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "étonner" and "étonnez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "étonnera vs étonnez". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #162,844 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