écrivantvsécriventWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: écrivant is a noun, écrivent is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“écrivant” is a noun and “écrivent” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,976
“écrivant” frequency rank
#8,948
“écrivent” frequency rank
19924
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature écrivant écrivent
Definition Personne qui écrit. Le terme auteur est utilisé dans le langage ordinaire pour un sens similaire. Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de écrire.

Where the eye mixes écrivant and écrivent

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

8 ch
écrivant
8 ch
écrivent

Look-alike desk: écrivant vs écrivent

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: écrivant is \e.kʁi.vɑ̃\ while écrivent is \e.kʁiv\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “écrivant” becomes e in “écrivent”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19924, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

écrivant is recorded at frequency rank #10,976, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.kʁi.vɑ̃\. écrivent is at rank #8,948, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.kʁiv\.

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 19924, this pair ranks #370,839 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of écrivant vs écrivent

Shared letters: cinrtvé. Private to "écrivant": a. Private to "écrivent": e.

"écrivant" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCC  ·  "écrivent" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "écrivant" for "écrivent" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "écrivant" is a noun and "écrivent" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "écrivant" or "écrivent"?
"écrivent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,948 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.

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 "écrivant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "écrivent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #370,839 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "écrivant" and "écrivent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "écrivant vs écrivons". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #370,839 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