pardonnévspardonnentWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“pardonné” and “pardonnent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#17,219
“pardonné” frequency rank
#46,336
“pardonnent” frequency rank
63555
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pardonné pardonnent
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de pardonner. Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de pardonner.

Where the eye mixes pardonné and pardonnent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. pardonné runs 8 letters (CVCCVCCV) against pardonnent's 10 (CVCCVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
pardonné
10 ch
pardonnent

Visual trap between pardonné and pardonnent

A purely visual mix-up. pardonné (\paʁ.dɔ.ne\) and pardonnent (\paʁ.dɔn\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63555, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pardonné is recorded at frequency rank #17,219, classified as averb, pronounced \paʁ.dɔ.ne\. pardonnent is at rank #46,336, tagged as averb, pronounced \paʁ.dɔn\.

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 63555, this pair ranks #81,402 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pardonné vs pardonnent

Shared letters: adnopr. Private to "pardonné": é. Private to "pardonnent": et.

"pardonné" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV  ·  "pardonnent" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pardonnentaprdonnent · padronnent · parddonnent · pardnonent · pardonennt · pardonent · pardonnennt · pardonnentt

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pardonné" and "pardonnent" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\paʁ.dɔ.ne\ versus \paʁ.dɔn\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pardonné" or "pardonnent"?
"pardonné" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,219 in our French list, against #46,336 for "pardonnent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "pardonné" and "pardonnent" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pardonné" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pardonnent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #81,402 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pardonné" and "pardonnent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pardonnent vs pardonnera". 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 #81,402 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