Which to use
“semblent” and “sembles” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,339
- “semblent” frequency rank
- #17,004
- “sembles” frequency rank
- 19343
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | semblent | sembles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de sembler. | Deuxième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de sembler. |
Same sound, different letters: semblent vs sembles
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. semblent runs 8 letters (CVCCCVCC) against sembles's 7 (CVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - semblent and sembles
This is the hard kind. semblent and sembles are pronounced identically (\sɑ̃bl\) and both work as averb. 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19343, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
semblent is recorded at frequency rank #2,339, classified as averb, pronounced \sɑ̃bl\. sembles is at rank #17,004, tagged as averb, pronounced \sɑ̃bl\.
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 19343, this pair ranks #373,739 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of semblent vs sembles
Shared letters: belms. Private to "semblent": nt. Private to "sembles": -.
"semblent" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCC · "sembles" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "semblent" and "sembles" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "semblent" or "sembles" show up more?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "semblent" / "sembles". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "semblent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sembles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #373,739 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "semblent" and "sembles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sembles vs sépales". 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 #373,739 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.