Which to use
“écart” is a noun and “était” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,232
- “écart” frequency rank
- #64
- “était” frequency rank
- 3296
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | écart | était |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action par laquelle deux parties d’une chose s’écartent plus ou moins l’une de l’autre. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait du verbe être. |
Where the eye mixes écart and était
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between écart and était
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: écart is \e.kaʁ\ while était is \e.tɛ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3296, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
écart is recorded at frequency rank #3,232, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.kaʁ\. était is at rank #64, tagged as averb, 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 3296, this pair ranks #434,378 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of écart vs était
Shared letters: até. Private to "écart": cr. Private to "était": i.
"écart" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC · "était" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "écart" for "était" ever safe?
Frequency check: "écart" vs "était" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "écart" and "était" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "écart" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "était" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #434,378 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "écart" and "était" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "émit vs était". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #434,378 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.