employaitvsemployantWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#25,639
“employait” frequency rank
#17,416
“employant” frequency rank
43055
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature employait employant
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de employer. Participe présent de employer.

Where the eye mixes employait and employant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. employait (VCCCVVVVC) and employant (VCCCVVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

9 ch
employait
9 ch
employant

Why the eye confuses employait with employant

A purely visual mix-up. employait (\ɑ̃.plwa.jɛ\) and employant (\ɑ̃.plwa.jɑ̃\) 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 a single letter - i in “employait” becomes n in “employant”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43055, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

employait is recorded at frequency rank #25,639, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.plwa.jɛ\. employant is at rank #17,416, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.plwa.jɑ̃\.

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 43055, this pair ranks #220,960 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of employait vs employant

Shared letters: aelmopty. Private to "employait": i. Private to "employant": n.

"employait" · 9 letters · shape VCCCVVVVC  ·  "employant" · 9 letters · shape VCCCVVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • employait ← emlpoyait · emmployait · emplloyait · emploayit · employaitt · employati · employiat · employyait
  • employant ← emlpoyant · emmployant · emplloyant · emploaynt · employannt · employantt · employatn · employnat

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "employait" and "employant" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃.plwa.jɛ\ versus \ɑ̃.plwa.jɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "employait" or "employant"?
"employant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,416 in our French list, against #25,639 for "employait". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "employait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "employant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #220,960 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "employait" and "employant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "employant vs employons". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #220,960 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