patiencevspatientesWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#4,174
“patience” frequency rank
#21,721
“patientes” frequency rank
25895
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature patience patientes
Definition Vertu qui fait supporter les adversités, les douleurs, les injures, les incommodités, etc. Féminin pluriel de patient.

Where the eye mixes patience and patientes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. patience runs 8 letters (CVCVVCCV) against patientes's 9 (CVCVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
patience
9 ch
patientes

Visual trap between patience and patientes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: patience is \pa.sjɑ̃s\ while patientes is \pa.sjɑ̃t\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25895, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

patience is recorded at frequency rank #4,174, classified as anoun, pronounced \pa.sjɑ̃s\. patientes is at rank #21,721, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pa.sjɑ̃t\.

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 25895, this pair ranks #338,268 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of patience vs patientes

Shared letters: aeinpt. Private to "patience": c. Private to "patientes": s.

"patience" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCCV  ·  "patientes" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • patience ← aptience · paitence · pateince · patiecne · patiencce · patienec · patiennce · patinece
  • patientes ← aptientes · paitentes · pateintes · patienets · patienntes · patientess · patientse · patienttes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "patience" and "patientes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "patience" is a noun and "patientes" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "patience" or "patientes"?
"patience" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,174 in our French list, against #21,721 for "patientes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "patience" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "patientes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #338,268 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "patience" and "patientes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "païennes vs patientes". 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 #338,268 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