panservspensésWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: panser is a verb, pensés is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“panser” is a verb and “pensés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,408
“panser” frequency rank
#34,665
“pensés” frequency rank
75073
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature panser pensés
Definition Soigner une plaie ou une blessure ; lui faire un pansement. Masculin pluriel de pensé.

Same sound, different letters: panser vs pensés

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters. panser and pensés follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
panser
6 ch
pensés

Same sound, different spelling - panser / pensés

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: panser and pensés carry the same recorded pronunciation, \pɑ̃.se\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75073, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

panser is recorded at frequency rank #40,408, classified as averb, pronounced \pɑ̃.se\. pensés is at rank #34,665, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɑ̃.se\.

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 75073, this pair ranks #35,199 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of panser vs pensés

Shared letters: enps. Private to "panser": ar. Private to "pensés": é.

"panser" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "pensés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • panser ← apnser · panesr · pannser · panserr · pansre · pansser · pasner · pnaser

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "panser" and "pensés" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "panser" is a verb and "pensés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "panser" vs "pensés" - which ranks higher?
"pensés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,665 in our French list, against #40,408 for "panser". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "panser" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pensés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #35,199 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "panser" and "pensés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "panser vs Panzer". 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 #35,199 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