Which to use
“flottant” and “flottantes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,632
- “flottant” frequency rank
- #35,949
- “flottantes” frequency rank
- 51581
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | flottant | flottantes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui flotte. | Féminin pluriel de flottant. |
Where the eye mixes flottant and flottantes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. flottant runs 8 letters (CCVCCVCC) against flottantes's 10 (CCVCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses flottant with flottantes
A purely visual mix-up. flottant (\flɔ.tɑ̃\) and flottantes (\flɔ.tɑ̃t\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “flottant” sits inside “flottantes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51581, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
flottant is recorded at frequency rank #15,632, classified as anadj, pronounced \flɔ.tɑ̃\. flottantes is at rank #35,949, tagged as anadj, pronounced \flɔ.tɑ̃t\.
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 51581, this pair ranks #153,955 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of flottant vs flottantes
Shared letters: aflnot. Private to "flottant": -. Private to "flottantes": es.
"flottant" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC · "flottantes" · 10 letters · shape CCVCCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- flottant ← fflottant · fllottant · flotant · flotatnt · flottannt · flottantt · flottatn · flottnat
- flottantes ← fflottantes · fllottantes · flotantes · flotatntes · flottanets · flottanntes · flottantess · flottantse
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "flottant" for "flottantes" ever safe?
Frequency check: "flottant" vs "flottantes" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "flottant" and "flottantes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "flottant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "flottantes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #153,955 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "flottant" and "flottantes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "flottantes vs flottants". 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 #153,955 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.