Which to use
“comptais” and “comptait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,385
- “comptais” frequency rank
- #5,114
- “comptait” frequency rank
- 22499
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | comptais | comptait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait de compter. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait de compter. |
Same sound, different letters: comptais vs comptait
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters.
Homophone desk: comptais vs comptait
This is the hard kind. comptais and comptait are pronounced identically (\kɔ̃.tɛ\) 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 “comptais” becomes t in “comptait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22499, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
comptais is recorded at frequency rank #17,385, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.tɛ\. comptait is at rank #5,114, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.tɛ\.
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 22499, this pair ranks #357,658 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of comptais vs comptait
Shared letters: acimopt. Private to "comptais": s. Private to "comptait": -.
"comptais" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVVC · "comptait" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "comptais" for "comptait" ever safe?
Frequency check: "comptais" vs "comptait" - which ranks higher?
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 "comptais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "comptait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #357,658 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "comptais" and "comptait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "comptais vs comptées". 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 #357,658 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.