permettantvspermettraitTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,711
“permettant” frequency rank
#5,906
“permettrait” frequency rank
7617
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature permettant permettrait
Definition Participe présent de permettre. Troisième personne du singulier du conditionnel de permettre.

Where the eye mixes permettant and permettrait

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. permettant runs 10 letters (CVCCVCCVCC) against permettrait's 11 (CVCCVCCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
permettant
11 ch
permettrait

Why the eye confuses permettant with permettrait

A purely visual mix-up. permettant (\pɛʁ.mɛ.tɑ̃\) and permettrait (\pɛʁ.mɛ.tʁɛ\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7617, 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\. permettrait is at rank #5,906, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ.mɛ.tʁɛ\.

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 7617, this pair ranks #422,634 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of permettant vs permettrait

Shared letters: aemprt. Private to "permettant": n. Private to "permettrait": i.

"permettant" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCC  ·  "permettrait" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • permettanteprmettant · pemrettant · peremttant · permetant · permetatnt · permettannt · permettantt · permettatn
  • permettraiteprmettrait · pemrettrait · peremttrait · permetrait · permetrtait · permettarit · permettraitt · permettrati

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "permettant" for "permettrait" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pɛʁ.mɛ.tɑ̃\ versus \pɛʁ.mɛ.tʁɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "permettant" vs "permettrait" - which ranks higher?
"permettant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,711 in our French list, against #5,906 for "permettrait". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "permettant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "permettrait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #422,634 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "permettant" and "permettrait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "permettrais vs permettrait". 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 #422,634 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