témoignagevstémoignéTell them apart

Quick tell: témoignage is a noun, témoigné is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“témoignage” is a noun and “témoigné” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,302
“témoignage” frequency rank
#17,584
“témoigné” frequency rank
20886
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature témoignage témoigné
Definition Action de témoigner ; rapport d’un ou de plusieurs témoins sur un fait, soit de vive voix, soit par écrit. Participe passé masculin singulier de témoigner.

Where the eye mixes témoignage and témoigné

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. témoignage runs 10 letters (CVCVVCCVCV) against témoigné's 8 (CVCVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
témoignage
8 ch
témoigné

Look-alike desk: témoignage vs témoigné

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: témoignage is \te.mwa.ɲaʒ\ while témoigné is \te.mwa.ɲe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20886, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

témoignage is recorded at frequency rank #3,302, classified as anoun, pronounced \te.mwa.ɲaʒ\. témoigné is at rank #17,584, tagged as averb, pronounced \te.mwa.ɲe\.

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 20886, this pair ranks #365,968 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of témoignage vs témoigné

Shared letters: gimnoté. Private to "témoignage": ae. Private to "témoigné": -.

"témoignage" · 10 letters · shape CVCVVCCVCV  ·  "témoigné" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "témoignage" and "témoigné" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "témoignage" is a noun and "témoigné" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "témoignage" or "témoigné"?
"témoignage" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,302 in our French list, against #17,584 for "témoigné". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "témoignage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "témoigné" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #365,968 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "témoignage" and "témoigné" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "teigne vs témoigné". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #365,968 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