Which to use
“know” is a verb and “known” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,241
- “know” frequency rank
- #47,995
- “known” frequency rank
- 59236
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | know | known |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | (pour une personne, un endroit) Connaître. | Connu. |
Where the eye mixes know and known
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses know with known
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: know is \ˈnoʊ\ while known is \ˈnoʊn\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “know” sits inside “known”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59236, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
know is recorded at frequency rank #11,241, classified as averb, pronounced \ˈnoʊ\. known is at rank #47,995, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ˈnoʊn\.
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 59236, this pair ranks #104,290 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of know vs known
Shared letters: know. Private to "know": -. Private to "known": -.
"know" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "known" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "know" and "known" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "know" or "known" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "know" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "known" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #104,290 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "know" and "known" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "known vs kwon". 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 #104,290 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.