pensésvspensezWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: pensés is a adjective, pensez is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pensés” is an adjective and “pensez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,665
“pensés” frequency rank
#1,782
“pensez” frequency rank
36447
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pensés pensez
Definition Masculin pluriel de pensé. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de penser.

Same sound, different letters: pensés vs pensez

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.

6 ch
pensés
6 ch
pensez

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: pensés and pensez carry the same recorded pronunciation, \pɑ̃.se\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, 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 36447, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pensés is recorded at frequency rank #34,665, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɑ̃.se\. pensez is at rank #1,782, tagged as averb, 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 36447, this pair ranks #269,555 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pensés vs pensez

Shared letters: enps. Private to "pensés": é. Private to "pensez": z.

"pensés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "pensez" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pensezepnsez · penesz · pennsez · pensezz · penssez · pensze · pesnez · pnesez

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pensés" and "pensez" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pensés" is an adjective and "pensez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pensés" or "pensez"?
"pensez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,782 in our French list, against #34,665 for "pensés". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list