Which to use
“écrivait” is a verb and “écrivant” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,104
- “écrivait” frequency rank
- #10,976
- “écrivant” frequency rank
- 21080
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | écrivait | écrivant |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de écrire. | Personne qui écrit. Le terme auteur est utilisé dans le langage ordinaire pour un sens similaire. |
Where the eye mixes écrivait and écrivant
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses écrivait with écrivant
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: écrivait is \e.kʁi.vɛ\ while écrivant is \e.kʁi.vɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - i in “écrivait” becomes n in “écrivant”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21080, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
écrivait is recorded at frequency rank #10,104, classified as averb, pronounced \e.kʁi.vɛ\. 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 21080, this pair ranks #364,961 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of écrivait vs écrivant
Shared letters: acirtvé. Private to "écrivait": -. Private to "écrivant": n.
"écrivait" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVVC · "écrivant" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "écrivait" and "écrivant" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "écrivait" or "écrivant" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "écrivait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "écrivant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #364,961 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "écrivait" and "écrivant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "écrivant vs écrivons". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #364,961 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.