pensait

\pɑ̃.sɛ\

/\pɑ̃.sɛ\/ verb

The verdict

“pensait” has 10 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #3,867. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#3,867
frequency rank, French
6,826
“P” headwords
10
tracked misspellings
19
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de penser.

Corpus desk

Index FR-pensait · pensait · French

pensait · rank #3,867 · 10 variants · 19 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #3,867
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 19 pairs
  • VAR-MID 10 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,826
  • PHOTO-FINISH passait

Nearest frequency peer: passait (-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 « pensait »

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

corpus weight

What this shows « pensait » 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).

pensait vs pesant
71% similar
pensait vs posait
71% similar
pensait vs pesait
86% similar

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

Key facts for pensait
PropertyValue
Headwordpensait
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\pɑ̃.sɛ\
Letters7
Frequency rank#3,867
Misspellings tracked10
Confusable pairs19
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « pensait »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).pensaitse place ici:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « passait » (#3,866), « prochaines » (#3,868), « parisiens » (#3,865). Parmi 6,826 lemmes en « P », « pensait » est au #3,867. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 10 spelling variants around pensait (IPA \pɑ̃.sɛ\), averb. Corpus frequency is #3,867 among 6,826 “P” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de penser.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for pensait, with forms such as "epnsait", "penasit", and "pennsait". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 19 confusable-pair relationships, "pesant", "posait", "pesait", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is pensait, spelled P-E-N-S-A-I-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de penser.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Il pensait également et infailliblement à désencourager le mariage de raison comme il avait fait avec Wendkonta et dans le meilleur des cas, instaurer une liberté absolue au profit des jeunes gens des temps modernes, avec la permission du chef de village.
  2. Leur matière et leur patine profonde quasi laquée témoignent d’une extrême ancienneté (plusieurs siècles pour certains) et nous renvoient à une interrogation sur nous-mêmes à travers la quête du sens et de nos origines, à une époque pas si lointaine pour certains et encore vivante (mais pour combien de temps encore…) pour d’autres où l’homme se pensait en…

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • epnsait
  • penasit
  • pennsait
  • pensaitt
  • pensati
  • pensiat
  • penssait
  • pesnait
  • pnesait
  • ppensait

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of pensait - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

epnsait2penasit2pennsait1pensaitt1pensati2pensiat2penssait1pesnait2
Edit distance from "pensait"

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 "pensait"?
"pensait" is spelled P-E-N-S-A-I-T. The IPA pronunciation is \pɑ̃.sɛ\.
What does "pensait" mean?
As a verb, "pensait" means: Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de penser.
What words are commonly confused with "pensait"?
"pensait" is commonly confused with "pesant", "posait", "pesait". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "pensait"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "pensait" is \pɑ̃.sɛ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "pensait" come from?
"pensait" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "pensait", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (10 here; floor ≥5).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list