éclairciesvséclaircitWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: éclaircies is a adjective, éclaircit is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“éclaircies” is an adjective and “éclaircit” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,112
“éclaircies” frequency rank
#37,614
“éclaircit” frequency rank
76726
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature éclaircies éclaircit
Definition Féminin pluriel de éclairci. Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de éclaircir.

Same sound, different letters: éclaircies vs éclaircit

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. éclaircies runs 10 letters (VCCVVCCVVC) against éclaircit's 9 (VCCVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
éclaircies
9 ch
éclaircit

Ear matches; page differs - éclaircies and éclaircit

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: éclaircies and éclaircit carry the same recorded pronunciation, \e.klɛʁ.si\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76726, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

éclaircies is recorded at frequency rank #39,112, classified as anadj, pronounced \e.klɛʁ.si\. éclaircit is at rank #37,614, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.klɛʁ.si\.

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 76726, this pair ranks #30,325 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of éclaircies vs éclaircit

Shared letters: acilré. Private to "éclaircies": es. Private to "éclaircit": t.

"éclaircies" · 10 letters · shape VCCVVCCVVC  ·  "éclaircit" · 9 letters · shape VCCVVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "éclaircies" for "éclaircit" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "éclaircies" is an adjective and "éclaircit" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "éclaircies" or "éclaircit" show up more?
"éclaircit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,614 in our French list, against #39,112 for "éclaircies". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "éclaircies" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "éclaircit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #30,325 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "éclaircies" and "éclaircit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "éclairci vs éclaircies". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #30,325 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