parentsvspatenteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#512
“parents” frequency rank
#32,949
“patente” frequency rank
33461
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature parents patente
Definition Pluriel de parent (pluriel souvent utilisé pour désigner le père et la mère, ou les pères, ou les mères d'une personne, collectivement). Brevet émanant d’une autorité établissant un droit, un titre ou un privilège.

Where the eye mixes parents and patente

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
parents
7 ch
patente

Look-alike desk: parents vs patente

A purely visual mix-up. parents (\pa.ʁɑ̃\) and patente (\pa.tɑ̃t\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33461, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

parents is recorded at frequency rank #512, classified as anoun, pronounced \pa.ʁɑ̃\. patente is at rank #32,949, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pa.tɑ̃t\.

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 33461, this pair ranks #290,480 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of parents vs patente

Shared letters: aenpt. Private to "parents": rs. Private to "patente": -.

"parents" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC  ·  "patente" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • parentsaprents · paernts · parennts · parenst · parentss · parentts · paretns · parnets
  • patenteaptente · paetnte · patenet · patennte · patentte · patetne · patnete · pattente

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "parents" and "patente" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pa.ʁɑ̃\ versus \pa.tɑ̃t\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "parents" or "patente"?
"parents" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #512 in our French list, against #32,949 for "patente". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "parents" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "patente" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #290,480 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "parents" and "patente" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Papeete vs patente". 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 #290,480 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