Which to use
“avais” and “avait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #232
- “avais” frequency rank
- #87
- “avait” frequency rank
- 319
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | avais | avait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de avoir. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait du verbe avoir. |
Same sound, different letters: avais vs avait
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - avais and avait
This is the hard kind. avais and avait are pronounced identically (\a.vɛ\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by a single letter - s in “avais” becomes t in “avait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 319, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
avais is recorded at frequency rank #232, classified as averb, pronounced \a.vɛ\. avait is at rank #87, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.vɛ\.
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 319, this pair ranks #439,821 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of avais vs avait
Shared letters: aiv. Private to "avais": s. Private to "avait": t.
"avais" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC · "avait" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "avais" and "avait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "avais" or "avait" show up more?
What to do next
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "avais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "avait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #439,821 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "avais" and "avait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "avais vs aves". 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 #439,821 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.