Which to use
“personne” and “personnes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #149
- “personne” frequency rank
- #212
- “personnes” frequency rank
- 361
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | personne | personnes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Être humain considéré en tant qu’individu. | Pluriel de personne. |
Same sound, different letters: personne vs personnes
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. personne runs 8 letters (CVCCVCCV) against personnes's 9 (CVCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - personne / personnes
This is the hard kind. personne and personnes are pronounced identically (\pɛʁ.sɔn\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “personne” sits inside “personnes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 361, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
personne is recorded at frequency rank #149, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁ.sɔn\. 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 361, this pair ranks #439,756 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of personne vs personnes
Shared letters: enoprs. Private to "personne": -. Private to "personnes": -.
"personne" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV · "personnes" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "personne" and "personnes" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "personne" or "personnes"?
What to do next
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "personne" 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 #439,756 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "personne" and "personnes" 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 #439,756 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.