permettantvspermettentConfusable pair

Which to use

“permettant” and “permettent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,711
“permettant” frequency rank
#1,881
“permettent” frequency rank
3592
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature permettant permettent
Definition Participe présent de permettre. Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de permettre.

Where the eye mixes permettant and permettent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. permettant and permettent follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

10 ch
permettant
10 ch
permettent

Look-alike desk: permettant vs permettent

A purely visual mix-up. permettant (\pɛʁ.mɛ.tɑ̃\) and permettent (\pɛʁ.mɛt\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - a in “permettant” becomes e in “permettent”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3592, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

permettant is recorded at frequency rank #1,711, classified as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ.mɛ.tɑ̃\. permettent is at rank #1,881, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ.mɛt\.

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 3592, this pair ranks #433,660 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of permettant vs permettent

Shared letters: emnprt. Private to "permettant": a. Private to "permettent": -.

"permettant" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCC  ·  "permettent" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • permettanteprmettant · pemrettant · peremttant · permetant · permetatnt · permettannt · permettantt · permettatn
  • permettenteprmettent · pemrettent · peremttent · permetent · permetetnt · permettennt · permettentt · permettetn

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "permettant" for "permettent" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pɛʁ.mɛ.tɑ̃\ versus \pɛʁ.mɛt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "permettant" vs "permettent" - which ranks higher?
"permettant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,711 in our French list, against #1,881 for "permettent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "permettant" and "permettent" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "permettant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "permettent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #433,660 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "permettant" and "permettent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "permettent vs permettons". 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 #433,660 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list