Which to use
“donnaient” and “dormaient” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,453
- “donnaient” frequency rank
- #32,782
- “dormaient” frequency rank
- 47235
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | donnaient | dormaient |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de donner. | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de dormir. |
Where the eye mixes donnaient and dormaient
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: donnaient vs dormaient
A purely visual mix-up. donnaient (\dɔ.nɛ\) and dormaient (\dɔʁ.mɛ\) 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 47235, 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\. dormaient is at rank #32,782, tagged as averb, pronounced \dɔʁ.mɛ\.
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 47235, this pair ranks #188,479 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of donnaient vs dormaient
Shared letters: adeinot. Private to "donnaient": -. Private to "dormaient": mr.
"donnaient" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVVCC · "dormaient" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "donnaient" and "dormaient" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "donnaient" or "dormaient"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "donnaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dormaient" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #188,479 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "donnaient" and "dormaient" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dormaient vs doutaient". 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 #188,479 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.