écriventvsécrivitWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#8,948
“écrivent” frequency rank
#14,390
“écrivit” frequency rank
23338
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature écrivent écrivit
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de écrire. Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de écrire.

Where the eye mixes écrivent and écrivit

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

8 ch
écrivent
7 ch
écrivit

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. écrivent (\e.kʁiv\) and écrivit (\e.kʁi.vi\) 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 23338, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

écrivent is recorded at frequency rank #8,948, classified as averb, pronounced \e.kʁiv\. 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 23338, this pair ranks #353,088 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of écrivent vs écrivit

Shared letters: cirtvé. Private to "écrivent": en. Private to "écrivit": -.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "écrivent" and "écrivit" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\e.kʁiv\ versus \e.kʁi.vi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "écrivent" or "écrivit"?
"écrivent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,948 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