assistavsassistezWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#37,180
“assista” frequency rank
#49,498
“assistez” frequency rank
86678
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature assista assistez
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple du verbe assister. Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe assister.

Where the eye mixes assista and assistez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. assista runs 7 letters (VCCVCCV) against assistez's 8 (VCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
assista
8 ch
assistez

Why the eye confuses assista with assistez

A purely visual mix-up. assista (\a.sis.ta\) and assistez (\a.sis.te\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 86678, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

assista is recorded at frequency rank #37,180, classified as averb, pronounced \a.sis.ta\. assistez is at rank #49,498, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.sis.te\.

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 86678, this pair ranks #9,351 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of assista vs assistez

Shared letters: aist. Private to "assista": -. Private to "assistez": ez.

"assista" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV  ·  "assistez" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • assista ← asissta · asista · assisat · assissta · assistta · assitsa · asssita · sasista
  • assistez ← asisstez · asistez · assisetz · assisstez · assistezz · assisttez · assistze · assitsez

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "assista" for "assistez" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\a.sis.ta\ versus \a.sis.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "assista" or "assistez" show up more?
"assista" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,180 in our French list, against #49,498 for "assistez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "assista" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "assistez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #9,351 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "assista" and "assistez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "assist vs assistez". 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 #9,351 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