Which to use
“contrôlaient” and “contrôlait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,675
- “contrôlaient” frequency rank
- #30,112
- “contrôlait” frequency rank
- 76787
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | contrôlaient | contrôlait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif imparfait de contrôler. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait de contrôler. |
Same sound, different letters: contrôlaient vs contrôlait
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 10 letters. contrôlaient runs 12 letters (CVCCCVCVVVCC) against contrôlait's 10 (CVCCCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - contrôlaient / contrôlait
This is the hard kind. contrôlaient and contrôlait are pronounced identically (\kɔ̃.tʁo.lɛ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76787, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
contrôlaient is recorded at frequency rank #46,675, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.tʁo.lɛ\. contrôlait is at rank #30,112, tagged as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.tʁo.lɛ\.
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 76787, this pair ranks #30,156 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of contrôlaient vs contrôlait
Shared letters: acilnortô. Private to "contrôlaient": e. Private to "contrôlait": -.
"contrôlaient" · 12 letters · shape CVCCCVCVVVCC · "contrôlait" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVCVVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "contrôlaient" for "contrôlait" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "contrôlaient" or "contrôlait" show up more?
Useful next steps
"contrôlaient" and "contrôlait" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "contrôlaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "contrôlait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #30,156 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "contrôlaient" and "contrôlait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "contrôlaient vs contrôlant". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #30,156 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.