écrivantvsécrivitWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#10,976
“écrivant” frequency rank
#14,390
“écrivit” frequency rank
25366
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature écrivant écrivit
Definition Personne qui écrit. Le terme auteur est utilisé dans le langage ordinaire pour un sens similaire. Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de écrire.

Where the eye mixes écrivant and écrivit

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
écrivant
7 ch
écrivit

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: écrivant is \e.kʁi.vɑ̃\ while écrivit is \e.kʁi.vi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25366, 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\. écrivit is at rank #14,390, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.kʁi.vi\.

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 25366, this pair ranks #341,285 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of écrivant vs écrivit

Shared letters: cirtvé. Private to "écrivant": an. Private to "écrivit": -.

"écrivant" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCC  ·  "écrivit" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "écrivant" and "écrivit" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "écrivant" is a noun and "écrivit" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "écrivant" or "écrivit"?
"écrivant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,976 in our French list, against #14,390 for "écrivit". 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