personnagesvspersonnesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,631
“personnages” frequency rank
#212
“personnes” frequency rank
1843
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature personnages personnes
Definition Pluriel de personnage. Pluriel de personne.

Where the eye mixes personnages and personnes

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

11 ch
personnages
9 ch
personnes

Visual trap between personnages and personnes

A purely visual mix-up. personnages (\pɛʁ.sɔ.naʒ\) and personnes (\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 1843, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

personnages is recorded at frequency rank #1,631, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁ.sɔ.naʒ\. personnes is at rank #212, 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 1843, this pair ranks #437,269 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of personnages vs personnes

Shared letters: enoprs. Private to "personnages": ag. Private to "personnes": -.

"personnages" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCVC  ·  "personnes" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • personnages ← eprsonnages · perosnnages · perrsonnages · persnonages · personages · personanges · personnaegs · personnagess
  • personnes ← eprsonnes · perosnnes · perrsonnes · persnones · personens · persones · personness · personnse

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "personnages" and "personnes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pɛʁ.sɔ.naʒ\ versus \pɛʁ.sɔn\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "personnages" vs "personnes" - which ranks higher?
"personnes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #212 in our French list, against #1,631 for "personnages". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "personnages" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "personnes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #437,269 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "personnages" and "personnes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Péronne vs personnes". 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 #437,269 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