Which to use
“allais” and “allait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,607
- “allais” frequency rank
- #1,053
- “allait” frequency rank
- 3660
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | allais | allait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait du verbe aller. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait du verbe aller. |
Same sound, different letters: allais vs allait
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. allais and allait follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Same sound, different spelling - allais / allait
This is the hard kind. allais and allait are pronounced identically (\a.lɛ\) 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 “allais” becomes t in “allait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3660, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
allais is recorded at frequency rank #2,607, classified as averb, pronounced \a.lɛ\. allait is at rank #1,053, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.lɛ\.
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 3660, this pair ranks #433,480 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of allais vs allait
Shared letters: ail. Private to "allais": s. Private to "allait": t.
"allais" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC · "allait" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "allais" and "allait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "allais" vs "allait" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "allais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "allait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #433,480 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "allais" and "allait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "allain vs allais". 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 #433,480 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.