Which to use
“permanent” and “permanents” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,059
- “permanent” frequency rank
- #11,632
- “permanents” frequency rank
- 16691
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | permanent | permanents |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est stable, immuable, qui dure sans changer, qui dure constamment. | Masculin pluriel de permanent. |
Same sound, different letters: permanent vs permanents
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. permanent runs 9 letters (CVCCVCVCC) against permanents's 10 (CVCCVCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: permanent vs permanents
This is the hard kind. permanent and permanents are pronounced identically (\pɛʁ.ma.nɑ̃\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “permanent” sits inside “permanents”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16691, 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\. permanents is at rank #11,632, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ.ma.nɑ̃\.
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 16691, this pair ranks #386,692 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of permanent vs permanents
Shared letters: aemnprt. Private to "permanent": -. Private to "permanents": s.
"permanent" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC · "permanents" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- permanent ← eprmanent · pemranent · peramnent · permaennt · permanennt · permanentt · permanetn · permannent
- permanents ← eprmanents · pemranents · peramnents · permaennts · permanennts · permanenst · permanentss · permanentts
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "permanent" for "permanents" ever safe?
Which is more common, "permanent" or "permanents"?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "permanent" / "permanents". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "permanent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "permanents" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #386,692 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "permanent" and "permanents" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "permanences vs permanents". 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 #386,692 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.