succèdentvssuccéderWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“succèdent” and “succéder” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#13,071
“succèdent” frequency rank
#11,669
“succéder” frequency rank
24740
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature succèdent succéder
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de succéder. Venir après ; prendre la place de.

Where the eye mixes succèdent and succéder

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. succèdent runs 9 letters (CVCCVCVCC) against succéder's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
succèdent
8 ch
succéder

Visual trap between succèdent and succéder

A purely visual mix-up. succèdent (\syk.sɛd\) and succéder (\syk.se.de\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24740, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

succèdent is recorded at frequency rank #13,071, classified as averb, pronounced \syk.sɛd\. succéder is at rank #11,669, tagged as averb, pronounced \syk.se.de\.

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 24740, this pair ranks #344,889 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of succèdent vs succéder

Shared letters: cdesu. Private to "succèdent": ntè. Private to "succéder": ré.

"succèdent" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC  ·  "succéder" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "succèdent" and "succéder" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\syk.sɛd\ versus \syk.se.de\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "succèdent" or "succéder" show up more?
"succéder" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,669 in our French list, against #13,071 for "succèdent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "succèdent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "succéder" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #344,889 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "succèdent" and "succéder" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "succèdent vs succédera". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #344,889 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list