Which to use
“tombant” is an adjective and “tombent” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #15,272
- “tombant” frequency rank
- #5,618
- “tombent” frequency rank
- 20890
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tombant | tombent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui tombe, qui pend. | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de tomber. |
Where the eye mixes tombant and tombent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. tombant and tombent follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between tombant and tombent
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tombant is \tɔ̃.bɑ̃\ while tombent is \tɔ̃b\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “tombant” becomes e in “tombent”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20890, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tombant is recorded at frequency rank #15,272, classified as anadj, pronounced \tɔ̃.bɑ̃\. tombent is at rank #5,618, tagged as averb, pronounced \tɔ̃b\.
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 20890, this pair ranks #365,946 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of tombant vs tombent
Shared letters: bmnot. Private to "tombant": a. Private to "tombent": e.
"tombant" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "tombent" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tombant" for "tombent" ever safe?
Which is more common, "tombant" or "tombent"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "tombant" and "tombent" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "tombant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tombent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #365,946 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tombant" and "tombent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tombant vs trompant". 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 #365,946 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.