comportaitvscomportantWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#17,098
“comportait” frequency rank
#9,973
“comportant” frequency rank
27071
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature comportait comportant
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait de comporter. Participe présent de comporter.

Where the eye mixes comportait and comportant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. comportait (CVCCVCCVVC) and comportant (CVCCVCCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

10 ch
comportait
10 ch
comportant

Look-alike desk: comportait vs comportant

A purely visual mix-up. comportait (\kɔ̃.pɔʁ.tɛ\) and comportant (\kɔ̃.pɔʁ.tɑ̃\) 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 a single letter - i in “comportait” becomes n in “comportant”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27071, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

comportait is recorded at frequency rank #17,098, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.pɔʁ.tɛ\. comportant is at rank #9,973, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.pɔʁ.tɑ̃\.

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 27071, this pair ranks #331,250 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of comportait vs comportant

Shared letters: acmoprt. Private to "comportait": i. Private to "comportant": n.

"comportait" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVC  ·  "comportant" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • comportait ← ccomportait · cmoportait · commportait · comoprtait · comporatit · comporrtait · comportaitt · comportati
  • comportant ← ccomportant · cmoportant · commportant · comoprtant · comporatnt · comporrtant · comportannt · comportantt

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "comportait" for "comportant" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ̃.pɔʁ.tɛ\ versus \kɔ̃.pɔʁ.tɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "comportait" vs "comportant" - which ranks higher?
"comportant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,973 in our French list, against #17,098 for "comportait". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "comportait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "comportant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #331,250 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "comportait" and "comportant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "comparait vs comportait". 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 #331,250 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