Which to use
“penser” is a verb and “pensés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #694
- “penser” frequency rank
- #34,665
- “pensés” frequency rank
- 35359
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | penser | pensés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Exercer l’activité de l’esprit ; accomplir quelque opération de l’intelligence ; concevoir ; imaginer ; réfléchir. | Masculin pluriel de pensé. |
Same sound, different letters: penser vs pensés
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - penser and pensés
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: penser and pensés carry the same recorded pronunciation, \pɑ̃.se\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35359, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
penser is recorded at frequency rank #694, classified as averb, pronounced \pɑ̃.se\. pensés is at rank #34,665, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɑ̃.se\.
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 35359, this pair ranks #277,271 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of penser vs pensés
Shared letters: enps. Private to "penser": r. Private to "pensés": é.
"penser" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "pensés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- penser ← epnser · penesr · pennser · penserr · pensre · pensser · pesner · pneser
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "penser" and "pensés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "penser" or "pensés"?
After this comparison
"penser" and "pensés" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "penser" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pensés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #277,271 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "penser" and "pensés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pensés vs pieuses". 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 #277,271 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.