surveilléesvssurveillentConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#39,566
“surveillées” frequency rank
#23,042
“surveillent” frequency rank
62608
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature surveillées surveillent
Definition Participe passé féminin pluriel de surveiller. Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de surveiller.

Where the eye mixes surveillées and surveillent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. surveillées (CVCCVVCCVVC) and surveillent (CVCCVVCCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

11 ch
surveillées
11 ch
surveillent

Look-alike desk: surveillées vs surveillent

A purely visual mix-up. surveillées (\syʁ.ve.je\) and surveillent (\syʁ.vɛj\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62608, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

surveillées is recorded at frequency rank #39,566, classified as averb, pronounced \syʁ.ve.je\. surveillent is at rank #23,042, tagged as averb, pronounced \syʁ.vɛj\.

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 62608, this pair ranks #86,228 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of surveillées vs surveillent

Shared letters: eilrsuv. Private to "surveillées": é. Private to "surveillent": nt.

"surveillées" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVVCCVVC  ·  "surveillent" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • surveillent ← sruveillent · ssurveillent · surevillent · surrveillent · surveilelnt · surveilent · surveillennt · surveillentt

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "surveillées" and "surveillent" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\syʁ.ve.je\ versus \syʁ.vɛj\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "surveillées" or "surveillent"?
"surveillent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,042 in our French list, against #39,566 for "surveillées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "surveillées" and "surveillent" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "surveillées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "surveillent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #86,228 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "surveillées" and "surveillent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "surveillées vs surveillez". 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 #86,228 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