accusaitvsamusaitWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“accusait” and “amusait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#22,753
“accusait” frequency rank
#23,097
“amusait” frequency rank
45850
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature accusait amusait
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait du verbe accuser. Le contrôleur-conducteur ne l’amusait plus, il n’entendait plus la pluie métallique de la monnaie tombant de sa tirelire, il n’avait pas besoin de lui pour savoir où descendre… — (Elsa Triolet, Le Cheval blanc, 1943, troisième partie, chapitre VII)

Where the eye mixes accusait and amusait

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. accusait runs 8 letters (VCCVCVVC) against amusait's 7 (VCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
accusait
7 ch
amusait

Why the eye confuses accusait with amusait

A purely visual mix-up. accusait (\a.ky.zɛ\) and amusait (\a.my.zɛ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45850, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

accusait is recorded at frequency rank #22,753, classified as averb, pronounced \a.ky.zɛ\. amusait is at rank #23,097, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.my.zɛ\.

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 45850, this pair ranks #199,551 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of accusait vs amusait

Shared letters: aistu. Private to "accusait": c. Private to "amusait": m.

"accusait" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVVC  ·  "amusait" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • accusaitaccsuait · accuasit · accusaitt · accusati · accusiat · accussait · acucsait · acusait
  • amusaitammusait · amsuait · amuasit · amusaitt · amusati · amusiat · amussait · aumsait

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "accusait" for "amusait" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\a.ky.zɛ\ versus \a.my.zɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "accusait" vs "amusait" - which ranks higher?
"accusait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,753 in our French list, against #23,097 for "amusait". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "accusait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "amusait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #199,551 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "accusait" and "amusait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "amusaient vs amusait". 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 #199,551 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