Which to use
“passent” is a verb and “présent” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,438
- “passent” frequency rank
- #696
- “présent” frequency rank
- 3134
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | passent | présent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de passer. | Qui est, qui se trouve actuellement dans le lieu dont on parle. |
Where the eye mixes passent and présent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: passent vs présent
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: passent is \pas\ while présent is \pʁe.zɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3134, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
passent is recorded at frequency rank #2,438, classified as averb, pronounced \pas\. présent is at rank #696, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁe.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 3134, this pair ranks #434,720 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of passent vs présent
Shared letters: enpst. Private to "passent": a. Private to "présent": ré.
"passent" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "présent" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- passent ← apssent · pasent · pasesnt · passennt · passentt · passetn · passnet · ppassent
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "passent" and "présent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "passent" or "présent" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "passent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "présent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #434,720 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "passent" and "présent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prêchent vs présent". 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 #434,720 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.