félicitentvsfélicitonsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#41,797
“félicitent” frequency rank
#48,546
“félicitons” frequency rank
90343
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature félicitent félicitons
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de féliciter. Première personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de féliciter.

Where the eye mixes félicitent and félicitons

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. félicitent and félicitons follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

10 ch
félicitent
10 ch
félicitons

Why the eye confuses félicitent with félicitons

A purely visual mix-up. félicitent (\fe.li.sit\) and félicitons (\fe.li.si.tɔ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 90343, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

félicitent is recorded at frequency rank #41,797, classified as averb, pronounced \fe.li.sit\. félicitons is at rank #48,546, tagged as averb, pronounced \fe.li.si.tɔ̃\.

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 90343, this pair ranks #4,879 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of félicitent vs félicitons

Shared letters: cfilnté. Private to "félicitent": e. Private to "félicitons": os.

"félicitent" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVCVCC  ·  "félicitons" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "félicitent" and "félicitons" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\fe.li.sit\ versus \fe.li.si.tɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "félicitent" or "félicitons"?
"félicitent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41,797 in our French list, against #48,546 for "félicitons". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "félicitent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "félicitons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #4,879 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "félicitent" and "félicitons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "félicitant vs félicitons". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #4,879 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