Which to use
“allait” is a verb and “allant” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,053
- “allait” frequency rank
- #2,656
- “allant” frequency rank
- 3709
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | allait | allant |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait du verbe aller. | Qui aime à aller et venir ; qui montre de l’activité. |
Where the eye mixes allait and allant
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. allait (VCCVVC) and allant (VCCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: allait vs allant
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: allait is \a.lɛ\ while allant is \a.lɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - i in “allait” becomes n in “allant”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3709, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
allait is recorded at frequency rank #1,053, classified as averb, pronounced \a.lɛ\. allant is at rank #2,656, tagged as anadj, pronounced \a.lɑ̃\.
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 3709, this pair ranks #433,376 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of allait vs allant
Shared letters: alt. Private to "allait": i. Private to "allant": n.
"allait" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC · "allant" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "allait" for "allant" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "allait" or "allant" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "allait" and "allant" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "allait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "allant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #433,376 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "allait" and "allant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "allain vs allant". 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 #433,376 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.