Which to use
“permanente” is a noun and “permanents” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,360
- “permanente” frequency rank
- #11,632
- “permanents” frequency rank
- 15992
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | permanente | permanents |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ondulation permanente, c’est-à-dire un traitement appliqué aux cheveux afin de les faire boucler ou friser de façon plus ou moins permanente. | Masculin pluriel de permanent. |
Where the eye mixes permanente and permanents
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. permanente (CVCCVCVCCV) and permanents (CVCCVCVCCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses permanente with permanents
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: permanente is \pɛʁ.ma.nɑ̃t\ while permanents is \pɛʁ.ma.nɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “permanente” becomes s in “permanents”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15992, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
permanente is recorded at frequency rank #4,360, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁ.ma.nɑ̃t\. 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 15992, this pair ranks #389,898 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of permanente vs permanents
Shared letters: aemnprt. Private to "permanente": -. Private to "permanents": s.
"permanente" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCV · "permanents" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- permanente ← eprmanente · pemranente · peramnente · permaennte · permanenet · permanennte · permanentte · permanetne
- permanents ← eprmanents · pemranents · peramnents · permaennts · permanennts · permanenst · permanentss · permanentts
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "permanente" and "permanents" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "permanente" vs "permanents" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "permanente" and "permanents" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "permanente" 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 #389,898 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "permanente" 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 #389,898 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.