essaye

\e.sɛj\

/\e.sɛj\/ verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“essaye” has 6 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #2,174. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#2,174
frequency rank, French
3,255
“E” headwords
6
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de essayer.

Corpus desk

Index FR-essaye · essaye · French

essaye · rank #2,174 · 6 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #2,174
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 6 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,255
  • PHOTO-FINISH fit

Nearest frequency peer: fit (+1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « essaye »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « essaye » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

essaye vs essuie
67% similar
essaye vs essuyé
67% similar
essaye vs estate
67% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for essaye
PropertyValue
Headwordessaye
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\e.sɛj\
Letters6
Frequency rank#2,174
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « essaye »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.essayese place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « fit » (#2,175), « doigts » (#2,172), « fruits » (#2,176). Parmi 3,255 lemmes en « E », « essaye » est au #2,174. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 6 spelling variants around essaye (IPA \e.sɛj\), averb. Corpus frequency is #2,174 among 3,255 “E” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for essaye, with forms such as "esasye", "esaye", and "essaey". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "essuie", "essuyé", "estate", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is essaye, spelled E-S-S-A-Y-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de essayer.
  2. 2
    Troisième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de essayer.
  3. 3
    Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de essayer.
  4. 4
    Troisième personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de essayer.
  5. 5
    Deuxième personne du singulier de l’impératif de essayer.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how essaye appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. En partant des distinctions faites par Dragoş Moldovanu en ce qui concerne la recherche diachronique de la toponymie entre les six types de dénomination toponymique, l’auteur essaye d’esquisser la mesure dans laquelle le premier type de dénomination, caractérisant la phase prétoponymique, d’identification et de localisation d’une référence géographique pa…
  2. Quel député fera Minard ! s’écria naïvement Zélie ; il s’essaye entre nous à parler, et vous nous aiderez à la faire nommer, pas vrai, Thuillier ?

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • esasye
  • esaye
  • essaey
  • essayye
  • essyae
  • sesaye

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of essaye - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

esasye2esaye1essaey2essayye1essyae2sesaye2
Edit distance from "essaye"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "essaye"?
"essaye" is spelled E-S-S-A-Y-E. The IPA pronunciation is \e.sɛj\.
What does "essaye" mean?
As a verb, "essaye" means: Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de essayer.
What words are commonly confused with "essaye"?
"essaye" is commonly confused with "essuie", "essuyé", "estate". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "essaye"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "essaye" is \e.sɛj\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "essaye" come from?
"essaye" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "essaye", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

doigts#2,172fruits#2,176humour#2,179Brésil#2,164

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).

haine6 variantsmonte6 variantsRang6 variantssoeur6 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list