Which to use
“puissant” is an adjective and “puissent” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,444
- “puissant” frequency rank
- #3,033
- “puissent” frequency rank
- 5477
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | puissant | puissent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui a beaucoup de pouvoir. | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent du subjonctif de pouvoir. |
Where the eye mixes puissant and puissent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: puissant vs puissent
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: puissant is [pɥi.sɑ̃] while puissent is \pɥis\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “puissant” becomes e in “puissent”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5477, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
puissant is recorded at frequency rank #2,444, classified as anadj, pronounced [pɥi.sɑ̃]. puissent is at rank #3,033, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɥis\.
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 5477, this pair ranks #428,913 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of puissant vs puissent
Shared letters: inpstu. Private to "puissant": a. Private to "puissent": e.
"puissant" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC · "puissent" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "puissant" for "puissent" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "puissant" or "puissent" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "puissant" and "puissent" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "puissant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "puissent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #428,913 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "puissant" and "puissent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puisent vs puissent". 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 #428,913 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.