amantsvsayantsConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#11,167
“amants” frequency rank
#20,368
“ayants” frequency rank
31535
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature amants ayants
Definition Pluriel de amant. Pluriel de ayant dans certaines locutions : ayant cause, ayant droit.

Where the eye mixes amants and ayants

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
amants
6 ch
ayants

Visual trap between amants and ayants

A purely visual mix-up. amants (\a.mɑ̃\) and ayants (\ɛ.jɑ̃\) 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 a single letter - m in “amants” becomes y in “ayants”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31535, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

amants is recorded at frequency rank #11,167, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.mɑ̃\. ayants is at rank #20,368, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛ.jɑ̃\.

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 31535, this pair ranks #303,189 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of amants vs ayants

Shared letters: anst. Private to "amants": m. Private to "ayants": y.

"amants" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCC  ·  "ayants" · 6 letters · shape VVVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • amantsaamnts · amannts · amanst · amantss · amantts · amatns · ammants · amnats
  • ayantsaaynts · ayannts · ayanst · ayantss · ayantts · ayatns · aynats · ayyants

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "amants" for "ayants" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\a.mɑ̃\ versus \ɛ.jɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "amants" vs "ayants" - which ranks higher?
"amants" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,167 in our French list, against #20,368 for "ayants". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "amants" and "ayants" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "amants" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ayants" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #303,189 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "amants" and "ayants" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "abats vs ayants". 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 #303,189 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