Which to use
“pertinent” and “pertinentes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,457
- “pertinent” frequency rank
- #15,716
- “pertinentes” frequency rank
- 27173
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pertinent | pertinentes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est tel qu’il convient, qui est approprié, qui est en rapport avec le sujet. | Féminin pluriel de pertinent. |
Where the eye mixes pertinent and pertinentes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. pertinent runs 9 letters (CVCCVCVCC) against pertinentes's 11 (CVCCVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses pertinent with pertinentes
A purely visual mix-up. pertinent (\pɛʁ.ti.nɑ̃\) and pertinentes (\pɛʁ.ti.nɑ̃t\) 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 extra letter(s) - “pertinent” sits inside “pertinentes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27173, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pertinent is recorded at frequency rank #11,457, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ.ti.nɑ̃\. pertinentes is at rank #15,716, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ.ti.nɑ̃t\.
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 27173, this pair ranks #330,661 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pertinent vs pertinentes
Shared letters: einprt. Private to "pertinent": -. Private to "pertinentes": s.
"pertinent" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC · "pertinentes" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- pertinent ← eprtinent · peritnent · perrtinent · pertiennt · pertinennt · pertinentt · pertinetn · pertinnent
- pertinentes ← eprtinentes · peritnentes · perrtinentes · pertienntes · pertinenets · pertinenntes · pertinentess · pertinentse
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pertinent" and "pertinentes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "pertinent" or "pertinentes" show up more?
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 "pertinent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pertinentes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #330,661 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pertinent" and "pertinentes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "périrent vs pertinent". 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 #330,661 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.