Which to use
“continuaient” and “continuèrent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,495
- “continuaient” frequency rank
- #34,952
- “continuèrent” frequency rank
- 58447
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | continuaient | continuèrent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif imparfait de continuer. | Troisième personne du pluriel du passé simple de continuer. |
Where the eye mixes continuaient and continuèrent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between continuaient and continuèrent
A purely visual mix-up. continuaient (\kɔ̃.ti.nɥɛ\) and continuèrent (\kɔ̃.ti.nɥɛʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58447, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
continuaient is recorded at frequency rank #23,495, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.ti.nɥɛ\. continuèrent is at rank #34,952, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.ti.nɥɛʁ\.
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 58447, this pair ranks #109,035 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of continuaient vs continuèrent
Shared letters: ceinotu. Private to "continuaient": a. Private to "continuèrent": rè.
"continuaient" · 12 letters · shape CVCCVCVVVVCC · "continuèrent" · 12 letters · shape CVCCVCVVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- continuaient ← ccontinuaient · cnotinuaient · conitnuaient · conntinuaient · continauient · continnuaient · continuaeint · continuaiennt
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "continuaient" and "continuèrent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "continuaient" or "continuèrent" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "continuaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "continuèrent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #109,035 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "continuaient" and "continuèrent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "continuerait vs continuèrent". 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 #109,035 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.