indépendances vs indépendants, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“indépendances” is a noun and “indépendants” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,815
“indépendances” frequency rank: #4,495
“indépendants” frequency rank: 51310
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	indépendances	indépendants
Definition	Pluriel de indépendance.	Masculin pluriel de indépendant.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set indépendances and indépendants apart are highlighted. They share 11 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

13 ch

indépendances

12 ch

indépendants

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: indépendances is \ɛ̃.de.pɑ̃.dɑ̃s\ while indépendants is \ɛ̃.de.pɑ̃.dɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51310, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

indépendances is recorded at frequency rank #46,815, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.de.pɑ̃.dɑ̃s\. indépendants is at rank #4,495, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.de.pɑ̃.dɑ̃\.

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 51310, this pair ranks #156,009 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of indépendances vs indépendants

Shared letters: adeinpsé. Private to "indépendances": c. Private to "indépendants": t.

"indépendances" · 13 letters · shape VCCVCVCCVCCVC · "indépendants" · 12 letters · shape VCCVCVCCVCCC

Frequency comparison

indépendances#46,815

indépendants#4,495

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "indépendances" and "indépendants" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "indépendances" is a noun and "indépendants" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "indépendances" or "indépendants"?

"indépendants" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,495 in our French list, against #46,815 for "indépendances". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering indépendances vs indépendants

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “indépendances”; for an adjective, it's “indépendants”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “indépendances” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable