Which to use
“spontané” and “spontanée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,993
- “spontané” frequency rank
- #15,040
- “spontanée” frequency rank
- 35033
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | spontané | spontanée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Que l’on fait de soi-même, de façon autonome. | Féminin singulier de spontané. |
Same sound, different letters: spontané vs spontanée
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. spontané runs 8 letters (CCVCCVCV) against spontanée's 9 (CCVCCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: spontané vs spontanée
This is the hard kind. spontané and spontanée are pronounced identically (\spɔ̃.ta.ne\) and both work as anadjective. 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) - “spontané” sits inside “spontanée”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35033, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
spontané is recorded at frequency rank #19,993, classified as anadj, pronounced \spɔ̃.ta.ne\. spontanée is at rank #15,040, tagged as anadj, pronounced \spɔ̃.ta.ne\.
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 35033, this pair ranks #279,652 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of spontané vs spontanée
Shared letters: anopsté. Private to "spontané": -. Private to "spontanée": e.
"spontané" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCV · "spontanée" · 9 letters · shape CCVCCVCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "spontané" and "spontanée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "spontané" or "spontanée" show up more?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "spontané" / "spontanée". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "spontané" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "spontanée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #279,652 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "spontané" and "spontanée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "soutane vs spontané". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #279,652 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.