eavsétaiWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: ea is a symbol, étai is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ea” is a symbol and “étai” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,027
“ea” frequency rank
#48,289
“étai” frequency rank
62316
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ea étai
Definition Symbole de 개, classificateur général pour les inanimés. Pièce de bois ou de fer utilisée pour soutenir une construction qui menace de s’écrouler, ou qui est en travaux.

Letter map: ea vs étai

Shared letters muted; letters that set ea and étai apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch
ea
4 ch
étai

Grammar separator: ea vs étai

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ea is asymbol and étaianoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62316, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ea is recorded at frequency rank #14,027, classified as asymbol. étai is at rank #48,289, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.tɛ\.

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 62316, this pair ranks #87,773 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ea vs étai

Shared letters: a. Private to "ea": e. Private to "étai": ité.

"ea" · 2 letters · shape VV  ·  "étai" · 4 letters · shape VCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ea" for "étai" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ea" is a symbol and "étai" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ea" or "étai"?
"ea" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,027 in our French list, against #48,289 for "étai". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ea" and "étai".

  • Full dictionary entry for "ea" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "étai" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #87,773 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ea" and "étai" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "étai vs étuis". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #87,773 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list