Which to use
“achetais” and “achetait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #39,624
- “achetais” frequency rank
- #27,677
- “achetait” frequency rank
- 67301
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | achetais | achetait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait du verbe acheter. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait du verbe acheter. |
Same sound, different letters: achetais vs achetait
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. achetais and achetait follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Ear matches; page differs - achetais and achetait
This is the hard kind. achetais and achetait are pronounced identically (\a.ʃə.tɛ\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by a single letter - s in “achetais” becomes t in “achetait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67301, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
achetais is recorded at frequency rank #39,624, classified as averb, pronounced \a.ʃə.tɛ\. achetait is at rank #27,677, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.ʃə.tɛ\.
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 67301, this pair ranks #63,995 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of achetais vs achetait
Shared letters: acehit. Private to "achetais": s. Private to "achetait": -.
"achetais" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVVC · "achetait" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "achetais" and "achetait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "achetais" or "achetait" show up more?
After this comparison
"achetais" and "achetait" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "achetais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "achetait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #63,995 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "achetais" and "achetait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "achetais vs achèterais". 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 #63,995 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.