suspendvssuspensConfusable pair

Quick tell: suspend is a verb, suspens is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“suspend” is a verb and “suspens” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,884
“suspend” frequency rank
#13,273
“suspens” frequency rank
32157
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature suspend suspens
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de suspendre. Qu’on a suspendu de ses fonctions, en parlant d’un ecclésiastique suspendu des fonctions de son état.

Same sound, different letters: suspend vs suspens

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.

7 ch
suspend
7 ch
suspens

Same sound, different spelling - suspend / suspens

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: suspend and suspens carry the same recorded pronunciation, \sys.pɑ̃\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by a single letter - d in “suspend” becomes s in “suspens”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32157, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

suspend is recorded at frequency rank #18,884, classified as averb, pronounced \sys.pɑ̃\. suspens is at rank #13,273, tagged as anadj, pronounced \sys.pɑ̃\.

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 32157, this pair ranks #299,127 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of suspend vs suspens

Shared letters: enpsu. Private to "suspend": d. Private to "suspens": -.

"suspend" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "suspens" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • suspendssupend · ssuspend · supsend · susepnd · suspedn · suspendd · suspennd · suspned
  • suspensssupens · ssuspens · supsens · susepns · suspenns · suspenss · suspesn · suspnes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "suspend" and "suspens" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "suspend" is a verb and "suspens" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "suspend" or "suspens" show up more?
"suspens" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,273 in our French list, against #18,884 for "suspend". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "suspend" / "suspens". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "suspend" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "suspens" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #299,127 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "suspend" and "suspens" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "suspens vs suspensif". 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 #299,127 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