Which to use
“personnage” and “personne” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,490
- “personnage” frequency rank
- #149
- “personne” frequency rank
- 1639
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | personnage | personne |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Personne ; avec une certaine idée de grandeur, d’autorité, d’importance sociale. | Être humain considéré en tant qu’individu. |
Where the eye mixes personnage and personne
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. personnage runs 10 letters (CVCCVCCVCV) against personne's 8 (CVCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: personnage vs personne
A purely visual mix-up. personnage (\pɛʁ.sɔ.naʒ\) and personne (\pɛʁ.sɔn\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1639, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
personnage is recorded at frequency rank #1,490, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁ.sɔ.naʒ\. personne is at rank #149, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁ.sɔn\.
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 1639, this pair ranks #437,664 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of personnage vs personne
Shared letters: enoprs. Private to "personnage": ag. Private to "personne": -.
"personnage" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCV · "personne" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- personnage ← eprsonnage · perosnnage · perrsonnage · persnonage · personage · personange · personnaeg · personnagge
- personne ← eprsonne · perosnne · perrsonne · persnone · persone · personen · perssonne · pesronne
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "personnage" for "personne" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "personnage" or "personne" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "personnage" and "personne" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "personnage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "personne" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #437,664 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "personnage" and "personne" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "persane vs personne". 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 #437,664 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.