Which to use
“permanent” is an adjective and “permanente” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,059
- “permanent” frequency rank
- #4,360
- “permanente” frequency rank
- 9419
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | permanent | permanente |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est stable, immuable, qui dure sans changer, qui dure constamment. | Ondulation permanente, c’est-à-dire un traitement appliqué aux cheveux afin de les faire boucler ou friser de façon plus ou moins permanente. |
Where the eye mixes permanent and permanente
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. permanent runs 9 letters (CVCCVCVCC) against permanente's 10 (CVCCVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses permanent with permanente
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: permanent is \pɛʁ.ma.nɑ̃\ while permanente is \pɛʁ.ma.nɑ̃t\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “permanent” sits inside “permanente”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9419, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
permanent is recorded at frequency rank #5,059, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ.ma.nɑ̃\. permanente is at rank #4,360, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁ.ma.nɑ̃t\.
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 9419, this pair ranks #416,716 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of permanent vs permanente
Shared letters: aemnprt. Private to "permanent": -. Private to "permanente": -.
"permanent" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC · "permanente" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- permanent ← eprmanent · pemranent · peramnent · permaennt · permanennt · permanentt · permanetn · permannent
- permanente ← eprmanente · pemranente · peramnente · permaennte · permanenet · permanennte · permanentte · permanetne
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "permanent" for "permanente" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "permanent" or "permanente" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "permanent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "permanente" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #416,716 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "permanent" and "permanente" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "permanences vs permanente". 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 #416,716 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.