Which to use
“donnaient” and “donnais” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,453
- “donnaient” frequency rank
- #21,598
- “donnais” frequency rank
- 36051
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | donnaient | donnais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de donner. | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de donner. |
Same sound, different letters: donnaient vs donnais
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. donnaient runs 9 letters (CVCCVVVCC) against donnais's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: donnaient vs donnais
This is the hard kind. donnaient and donnais are pronounced identically (\dɔ.nɛ\) 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 36051, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
donnaient is recorded at frequency rank #14,453, classified as averb, pronounced \dɔ.nɛ\. donnais is at rank #21,598, tagged as averb, pronounced \dɔ.nɛ\.
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 36051, this pair ranks #272,336 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of donnaient vs donnais
Shared letters: adino. Private to "donnaient": et. Private to "donnais": s.
"donnaient" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVVCC · "donnais" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "donnaient" for "donnais" ever safe?
Frequency check: "donnaient" vs "donnais" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "donnaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "donnais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #272,336 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "donnaient" and "donnais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "donnais vs Donnie". 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 #272,336 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.