flottentvsflottesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: flottent is a verb, flottes is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“flottent” is a verb and “flottes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,265
“flottent” frequency rank
#24,977
“flottes” frequency rank
58242
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature flottent flottes
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de flotter. Pluriel de flotte.

Same sound, different letters: flottent vs flottes

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.

8 ch
flottent
7 ch
flottes

Same sound, different spelling - flottent / flottes

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: flottent and flottes carry the same recorded pronunciation, \flɔt\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58242, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

flottent is recorded at frequency rank #33,265, classified as averb, pronounced \flɔt\. flottes is at rank #24,977, tagged as anoun, pronounced \flɔt\.

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 58242, this pair ranks #110,186 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of flottent vs flottes

Shared letters: eflot. Private to "flottent": n. Private to "flottes": s.

"flottent" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC  ·  "flottes" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • flottentfflottent · fllottent · flotent · flotetnt · flottennt · flottentt · flottetn · flottnet
  • flottesfflottes · fllottes · flotes · flotets · flottess · flottse · fltotes · folttes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "flottent" for "flottes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "flottent" is a verb and "flottes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "flottent" or "flottes" show up more?
"flottes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,977 in our French list, against #33,265 for "flottent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

"flottent" and "flottes" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "flottent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "flottes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #110,186 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "flottent" and "flottes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "flottent vs frottant". 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 #110,186 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