conduisaisvsconduisaitWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#44,387
“conduisais” frequency rank
#15,337
“conduisait” frequency rank
59724
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature conduisais conduisait
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de conduire. Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de conduire.

Same sound, different letters: conduisais vs conduisait

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. conduisais and conduisait follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

10 ch
conduisais
10 ch
conduisait

Same sound, different spelling - conduisais / conduisait

This is the hard kind. conduisais and conduisait are pronounced identically (\kɔ̃.dɥi.zɛ\) 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 “conduisais” becomes t in “conduisait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59724, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

conduisais is recorded at frequency rank #44,387, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.dɥi.zɛ\. conduisait is at rank #15,337, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.dɥi.zɛ\.

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 59724, this pair ranks #101,517 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of conduisais vs conduisait

Shared letters: acdinosu. Private to "conduisais": -. Private to "conduisait": t.

"conduisais" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVVCVVC  ·  "conduisait" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • conduisais ← cconduisais · cnoduisais · codnuisais · condduisais · condiusais · conduiasis · conduisaiss · conduisasi
  • conduisait ← cconduisait · cnoduisait · codnuisait · condduisait · condiusait · conduiasit · conduisaitt · conduisati

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "conduisais" and "conduisait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\kɔ̃.dɥi.zɛ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "conduisais" vs "conduisait" - which ranks higher?
"conduisait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,337 in our French list, against #44,387 for "conduisais". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "conduisais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "conduisait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #101,517 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "conduisais" and "conduisait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conduirait vs conduisais". 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 #101,517 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