déplaçaient vs déplaçait

Which to use

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

#47,304
“déplaçaient” frequency rank: #35,001
“déplaçait” frequency rank: 82305
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	déplaçaient	déplaçait
Definition	Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de déplacer.	Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de déplacer.

Same sound, different letters: déplaçaient vs déplaçait

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. déplaçaient runs 11 letters (CVCCVCVVVCC) against déplaçait's 9 (CVCCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

11 ch

déplaçaient

9 ch

déplaçait

Homophone desk: déplaçaient vs déplaçait

This is the hard kind. déplaçaient and déplaçait are pronounced identically (\de.pla.sɛ\) 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 82305, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

déplaçaient is recorded at frequency rank #47,304, classified as averb, pronounced \de.pla.sɛ\. déplaçait is at rank #35,001, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.pla.sɛ\.

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 82305, this pair ranks #17,002 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of déplaçaient vs déplaçait

Shared letters: adilptçé. Private to "déplaçaient": en. Private to "déplaçait": -.

"déplaçaient" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVVVCC · "déplaçait" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "déplaçaient" and "déplaçait" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No. They are pronounced the same (\de.pla.sɛ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.

In ordinary French text, does "déplaçaient" or "déplaçait" show up more?

"déplaçait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,001 in our French list, against #47,304 for "déplaçaient". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

"déplaçaient" and "déplaçait" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

Full dictionary entry for "déplaçaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "déplaçait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #17,002 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"déplaçaient" and "déplaçait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "déclaraient vs déplaçaient". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #17,002 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.