Which to use
“appuya” and “appuyait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,487
- “appuya” frequency rank
- #32,277
- “appuyait” frequency rank
- 81764
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | appuya | appuyait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple du verbe appuyer. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait du verbe appuyer. |
Where the eye mixes appuya and appuyait
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. appuya runs 6 letters (VCCVVV) against appuyait's 8 (VCCVVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses appuya with appuyait
A purely visual mix-up. appuya (\a.pɥi.ja\) and appuyait (\a.pɥi.jɛ\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “appuya” sits inside “appuyait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81764, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
appuya is recorded at frequency rank #49,487, classified as averb, pronounced \a.pɥi.ja\. appuyait is at rank #32,277, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.pɥi.jɛ\.
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 81764, this pair ranks #18,074 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of appuya vs appuyait
Shared letters: apuy. Private to "appuya": -. Private to "appuyait": it.
"appuya" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVV · "appuyait" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "appuya" for "appuyait" ever safe?
Frequency check: "appuya" vs "appuyait" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "appuya" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "appuyait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #18,074 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "appuya" and "appuyait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "appela vs appuya". 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 #18,074 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.