Which to use
“suffisant” and “suffisante” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,381
- “suffisant” frequency rank
- #6,443
- “suffisante” frequency rank
- 10824
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | suffisant | suffisante |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui suffit. | Féminin singulier de suffisant. |
Where the eye mixes suffisant and suffisante
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. suffisant runs 9 letters (CVCCVCVCC) against suffisante's 10 (CVCCVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses suffisant with suffisante
A purely visual mix-up. suffisant (\sy.fi.zɑ̃\) and suffisante (\sy.fi.zɑ̃t\) 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 extra letter(s) - “suffisant” sits inside “suffisante”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10824, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
suffisant is recorded at frequency rank #4,381, classified as anadj, pronounced \sy.fi.zɑ̃\. suffisante is at rank #6,443, tagged as anadj, pronounced \sy.fi.zɑ̃t\.
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 10824, this pair ranks #411,540 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of suffisant vs suffisante
Shared letters: afinstu. Private to "suffisant": -. Private to "suffisante": e.
"suffisant" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC · "suffisante" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- suffisant ← sfufisant · ssuffisant · suffiasnt · suffisannt · suffisantt · suffisatn · suffisnat · suffissant
- suffisante ← sfufisante · ssuffisante · suffiasnte · suffisanet · suffisannte · suffisantte · suffisatne · suffisnate
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "suffisant" and "suffisante" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "suffisant" or "suffisante" show up more?
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 "suffisant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "suffisante" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #411,540 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "suffisant" and "suffisante" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "suffisaient vs suffisant". 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 #411,540 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.