entendaientvsentendaisTell them apart

Which to use

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

#27,051
“entendaient” frequency rank
#14,466
“entendais” frequency rank
41517
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature entendaient entendais
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de entendre. Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de entendre.

Same sound, different letters: entendaient vs entendais

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. entendaient runs 11 letters (VCCVCCVVVCC) against entendais's 9 (VCCVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

11 ch
entendaient
9 ch
entendais

Ear matches; page differs - entendaient and entendais

This is the hard kind. entendaient and entendais are pronounced identically (\ɑ̃.tɑ̃.dɛ\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41517, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

entendaient is recorded at frequency rank #27,051, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.tɑ̃.dɛ\. entendais is at rank #14,466, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.tɑ̃.dɛ\.

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 41517, this pair ranks #232,511 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of entendaient vs entendais

Shared letters: adeint. Private to "entendaient": -. Private to "entendais": s.

"entendaient" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCCVVVCC  ·  "entendais" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • entendaientenetndaient · enntendaient · entednaient · entenadient · entendaeint · entendaiennt · entendaientt · entendaietn
  • entendaisenetndais · enntendais · entednais · entenadis · entendaiss · entendasi · entenddais · entendias

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "entendaient" and "entendais" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ɑ̃.tɑ̃.dɛ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "entendaient" vs "entendais" - which ranks higher?
"entendais" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,466 in our French list, against #27,051 for "entendaient". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've separated the homophone pair "entendaient" / "entendais". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "entendaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "entendais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #232,511 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "entendaient" and "entendais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "entendais vs entendis". 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 #232,511 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