Which to use
“attendait” and “attendrais” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,041
- “attendait” frequency rank
- #32,292
- “attendrais” frequency rank
- 36333
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | attendait | attendrais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de attendre. | Première personne du singulier du conditionnel de attendre. |
Where the eye mixes attendait and attendrais
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. attendait runs 9 letters (VCCVCCVVC) against attendrais's 10 (VCCVCCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: attendait vs attendrais
A purely visual mix-up. attendait (\a.tɑ̃.dɛ\) and attendrais (\a.tɑ̃.dʁɛ\) 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 36333, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
attendait is recorded at frequency rank #4,041, classified as averb, pronounced \a.tɑ̃.dɛ\. attendrais is at rank #32,292, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.tɑ̃.dʁɛ\.
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 36333, this pair ranks #270,340 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of attendait vs attendrais
Shared letters: adeint. Private to "attendait": -. Private to "attendrais": rs.
"attendait" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVVC · "attendrais" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- attendait ← atendait · atetndait · attednait · attenadit · attendaitt · attendati · attenddait · attendiat
- attendrais ← atendrais · atetndrais · attednrais · attendaris · attenddrais · attendraiss · attendrasi · attendrias
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "attendait" for "attendrais" ever safe?
Which is more common, "attendait" or "attendrais"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "attendait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "attendrais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #270,340 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "attendait" and "attendrais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "attendrais vs attendrir". 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 #270,340 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.