pardonnervspardonnezWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#7,474
“pardonner” frequency rank
#16,693
“pardonnez” frequency rank
24167
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pardonner pardonnez
Definition Accorder le pardon d’une faute commise, ne garder aucun ressentiment d’une injure reçue. — Note d’usage : En ce sens il a toujours le nom de la chose pour complément direct et le nom de la personne pour complément indirect avec la préposition. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de pardonner.

Same sound, different letters: pardonner vs pardonnez

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. pardonner and pardonnez follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
pardonner
9 ch
pardonnez

Same sound, different spelling - pardonner / pardonnez

This is the hard kind. pardonner and pardonnez are pronounced identically (\paʁ.dɔ.ne\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by a single letter - r in “pardonner” becomes z in “pardonnez”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24167, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pardonner is recorded at frequency rank #7,474, classified as averb, pronounced \paʁ.dɔ.ne\. pardonnez is at rank #16,693, tagged as averb, pronounced \paʁ.dɔ.ne\.

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 24167, this pair ranks #348,194 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pardonner vs pardonnez

Shared letters: adenopr. Private to "pardonner": -. Private to "pardonnez": z.

"pardonner" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC  ·  "pardonnez" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pardonneraprdonner · padronner · parddonner · pardnoner · pardonenr · pardoner · pardonnerr · pardonnre
  • pardonnezaprdonnez · padronnez · parddonnez · pardnonez · pardonenz · pardonez · pardonnezz · pardonnze

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pardonner" and "pardonnez" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\paʁ.dɔ.ne\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "pardonner" vs "pardonnez" - which ranks higher?
"pardonner" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,474 in our French list, against #16,693 for "pardonnez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "pardonner" / "pardonnez". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pardonner" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pardonnez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #348,194 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pardonner" and "pardonnez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pardonnent vs pardonnez". 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 #348,194 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