écrivainsvsécrivantWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“écrivains” and “écrivant” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#5,941
“écrivains” frequency rank
#10,976
“écrivant” frequency rank
16917
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature écrivains écrivant
Definition Pluriel de écrivain. Personne qui écrit. Le terme auteur est utilisé dans le langage ordinaire pour un sens similaire.

Where the eye mixes écrivains and écrivant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

9 ch
écrivains
8 ch
écrivant

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. écrivains (\e.kʁi.vɛ̃\) and écrivant (\e.kʁi.vɑ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16917, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

écrivains is recorded at frequency rank #5,941, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.kʁi.vɛ̃\. écrivant is at rank #10,976, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.kʁi.vɑ̃\.

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 16917, this pair ranks #385,652 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of écrivains vs écrivant

Shared letters: acinrvé. Private to "écrivains": s. Private to "écrivant": t.

"écrivains" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVVCC  ·  "écrivant" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "écrivains" and "écrivant" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\e.kʁi.vɛ̃\ versus \e.kʁi.vɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "écrivains" or "écrivant"?
"écrivains" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,941 in our French list, against #10,976 for "écrivant". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list