partisanevspartisansWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: partisane is a noun, partisans is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“partisane” is a noun and “partisans” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,965
“partisane” frequency rank
#3,951
“partisans” frequency rank
26916
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature partisane partisans
Definition Celle qui avait fait un traité avec le roi, pour des affaires de finances, qui avait pris à ferme les revenus de l’État, les impôts, etc. Masculin pluriel de partisan.

Where the eye mixes partisane and partisans

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

9 ch
partisane
9 ch
partisans

Look-alike desk: partisane vs partisans

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: partisane is \paʁ.ti.zan\ while partisans is \paʁ.ti.zɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “partisane” becomes s in “partisans”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26916, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

partisane is recorded at frequency rank #22,965, classified as anoun, pronounced \paʁ.ti.zan\. partisans is at rank #3,951, tagged as anadj, pronounced \paʁ.ti.zɑ̃\.

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 26916, this pair ranks #332,070 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of partisane vs partisans

Shared letters: ainprst. Private to "partisane": e. Private to "partisans": -.

"partisane" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCV  ·  "partisans" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • partisaneaprtisane · paritsane · parrtisane · partiasne · partisaen · partisanne · partisnae · partissane
  • partisansaprtisans · paritsans · parrtisans · partiasns · partisanns · partisanss · partisasn · partisnas

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "partisane" and "partisans" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "partisane" is a noun and "partisans" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "partisane" or "partisans" show up more?
"partisans" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,951 in our French list, against #22,965 for "partisane". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "partisane" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "partisans" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #332,070 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "partisane" and "partisans" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "partisane vs partisanes". 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 #332,070 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