Which to use
“paraissent” is a verb and “paresse” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,360
- “paraissent” frequency rank
- #19,622
- “paresse” frequency rank
- 28982
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | paraissent | paresse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de paraître (ou paraitre). | Tendance à éviter toute activité, à refuser tout effort consenti par les autres lambdas, disposition habituelle à ne pas travailler, nonchalance, négligence des choses qui sont de devoir, d’obligation. |
Same sound, different letters: paraissent vs paresse
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. paraissent runs 10 letters (CVCVVCCVCC) against paresse's 7 (CVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - paraissent / paresse
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: paraissent and paresse carry the same recorded pronunciation, \pa.ʁɛs\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 3 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28982, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
paraissent is recorded at frequency rank #9,360, classified as averb, pronounced \pa.ʁɛs\. paresse is at rank #19,622, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pa.ʁɛs\.
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 28982, this pair ranks #319,464 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of paraissent vs paresse
Shared letters: aeprs. Private to "paraissent": int. Private to "paresse": -.
"paraissent" · 10 letters · shape CVCVVCCVCC · "paresse" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- paraissent ← apraissent · paarissent · paraisent · paraisesnt · paraissennt · paraissentt · paraissetn · paraissnet
- paresse ← apresse · paersse · parese · pareses · parresse · parsese · pparesse · praesse
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "paraissent" and "paresse" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "paraissent" or "paresse" show up more?
What to do next
"paraissent" and "paresse" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "paraissent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "paresse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #319,464 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "paraissent" and "paresse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "paresse vs poreuse". 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 #319,464 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.