attendaientvsattendentWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#9,606
“attendaient” frequency rank
#3,182
“attendent” frequency rank
12788
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature attendaient attendent
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de attendre. Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de attendre.

Where the eye mixes attendaient and attendent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.

11 ch
attendaient
9 ch
attendent

Why the eye confuses attendaient with attendent

A purely visual mix-up. attendaient (\a.tɑ̃.dɛ\) and attendent (\a.tɑ̃d\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12788, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

attendaient is recorded at frequency rank #9,606, classified as averb, pronounced \a.tɑ̃.dɛ\. attendent is at rank #3,182, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.tɑ̃d\.

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 12788, this pair ranks #403,759 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of attendaient vs attendent

Shared letters: adent. Private to "attendaient": i. Private to "attendent": -.

"attendaient" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCCVVVCC  ·  "attendent" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • attendaientatendaient · atetndaient · attednaient · attenadient · attendaeint · attendaiennt · attendaientt · attendaietn
  • attendentatendent · atetndent · attednent · attenddent · attendennt · attendentt · attendetn · attendnet

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "attendaient" and "attendent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\a.tɑ̃.dɛ\ versus \a.tɑ̃d\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "attendaient" or "attendent"?
"attendent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,182 in our French list, against #9,606 for "attendaient". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "attendaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "attendent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #403,759 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "attendaient" and "attendent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "attendent vs attendront". 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 #403,759 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