Which to use
“donnait” and “donnent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,238
- “donnait” frequency rank
- #2,035
- “donnent” frequency rank
- 7273
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | donnait | donnent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de donner. | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de donner. |
Where the eye mixes donnait and donnent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. donnait (CVCCVVC) and donnent (CVCCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between donnait and donnent
A purely visual mix-up. donnait (\dɔ.nɛ\) and donnent (\dɔn\) 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 7273, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
donnait is recorded at frequency rank #5,238, classified as averb, pronounced \dɔ.nɛ\. donnent is at rank #2,035, tagged as averb, pronounced \dɔn\.
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 7273, this pair ranks #423,648 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of donnait vs donnent
Shared letters: dnot. Private to "donnait": ai. Private to "donnent": e.
"donnait" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "donnent" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "donnait" and "donnent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "donnait" or "donnent" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "donnait" and "donnent" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "donnait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "donnent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #423,648 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "donnait" and "donnent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "donnait 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 #423,648 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.