paralyservsparalysésTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#31,166
“paralyser” frequency rank
#40,906
“paralysés” frequency rank
72072
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature paralyser paralysés
Definition Frapper de paralysie. Masculin pluriel de paralysé.

Same sound, different letters: paralyser vs paralysés

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. paralyser and paralysés follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
paralyser
9 ch
paralysés

Same sound, different spelling - paralyser / paralysés

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: paralyser and paralysés carry the same recorded pronunciation, \pa.ʁa.li.ze\. 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72072, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

paralyser is recorded at frequency rank #31,166, classified as averb, pronounced \pa.ʁa.li.ze\. paralysés is at rank #40,906, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pa.ʁa.li.ze\.

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 72072, this pair ranks #45,314 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of paralyser vs paralysés

Shared letters: alprsy. Private to "paralyser": e. Private to "paralysés": é.

"paralyser" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC  ·  "paralysés" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • paralyser ← apralyser · paarlyser · parallyser · paralsyer · paralyesr · paralyserr · paralysre · paralysser

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "paralyser" for "paralysés" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "paralyser" is a verb and "paralysés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "paralyser" or "paralysés"?
"paralyser" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,166 in our French list, against #40,906 for "paralysés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "paralyser" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "paralysés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #45,314 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "paralyser" and "paralysés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "paralysée vs paralysés". 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 #45,314 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