avaientvsavalentWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: avaient is a verb, avalent is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“avaient” is a verb and “avalent” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#377
“avaient” frequency rank
#47,172
“avalent” frequency rank
47549
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature avaient avalent
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de avoir. Se dit d’un mot (très généralement un verbe ou une locution verbale) dont la valence est nulle c’est à dire qui n’accepte aucun actant. En français, cela s’applique essentiellement aux verbes impersonnels.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set avaient and avalent apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
avaient
7 ch
avalent

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: avaient is \a.vɛ\ while avalent is \a.va.lɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - i in “avaient” becomes l in “avalent”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47549, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

avaient is recorded at frequency rank #377, classified as averb, pronounced \a.vɛ\. avalent is at rank #47,172, tagged as anadj, pronounced \a.va.lɑ̃\.

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 47549, this pair ranks #186,077 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of avaient vs avalent

Shared letters: aentv. Private to "avaient": i. Private to "avalent": l.

"avaient" · 7 letters · shape VCVVVCC  ·  "avalent" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • avaientaavient · avaeint · avaiennt · avaientt · avaietn · avainet · aviaent · avvaient
  • avalentaavlent · avaelnt · avalennt · avalentt · avaletn · avallent · avalnet · avlaent

Frequency comparison

avaient#377
avalent#47,172

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "avaient" and "avalent" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "avaient" is a verb and "avalent" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "avaient" or "avalent"?
"avaient" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #377 in our French list, against #47,172 for "avalent". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering avaient vs avalent

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “avaient”; for an adjective, it's “avalent”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “avaient” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list