Which to use
“découvrais” and “découvrait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,612
- “découvrais” frequency rank
- #30,987
- “découvrait” frequency rank
- 80599
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | découvrais | découvrait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de découvrir. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de découvrir. |
Same sound, different letters: découvrais vs découvrait
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. découvrais and découvrait follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVCCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Ear matches; page differs - découvrais and découvrait
This is the hard kind. découvrais and découvrait are pronounced identically (\de.ku.vʁɛ\) 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 “découvrais” becomes t in “découvrait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80599, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
découvrais is recorded at frequency rank #49,612, classified as averb, pronounced \de.ku.vʁɛ\. découvrait is at rank #30,987, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.ku.vʁɛ\.
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 80599, this pair ranks #20,568 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of découvrais vs découvrait
Shared letters: acdioruvé. Private to "découvrais": s. Private to "découvrait": t.
"découvrais" · 10 letters · shape CVCVVCCVVC · "découvrait" · 10 letters · shape CVCVVCCVVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "découvrais" and "découvrait" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "découvrais" or "découvrait"?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "découvrais" / "découvrait". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "découvrais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "découvrait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #20,568 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "découvrais" and "découvrait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "découvrais vs découvrons". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #20,568 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.