avançavsavançaitWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#32,693
“avança” frequency rank
#20,366
“avançait” frequency rank
53059
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature avança avançait
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de avancer. Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait du verbe avancer.

Where the eye mixes avança and avançait

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

6 ch
avança
8 ch
avançait

Look-alike desk: avança vs avançait

A purely visual mix-up. avança (\a.vɑ̃.sa\) and avançait (\a.vɑ̃.sɛ\) 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 extra letter(s) - “avança” sits inside “avançait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53059, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

avança is recorded at frequency rank #32,693, classified as averb, pronounced \a.vɑ̃.sa\. avançait is at rank #20,366, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.vɑ̃.sɛ\.

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 53059, this pair ranks #143,387 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of avança vs avançait

Shared letters: anvç. Private to "avança": -. Private to "avançait": it.

"avança" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV  ·  "avançait" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "avança" for "avançait" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\a.vɑ̃.sa\ versus \a.vɑ̃.sɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "avança" or "avançait" show up more?
"avançait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,366 in our French list, against #32,693 for "avança". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "avança" and "avançait" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "avança" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "avançait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #143,387 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "avança" and "avançait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "advance vs avança". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #143,387 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