entendaientvsentendaitWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#27,051
“entendaient” frequency rank
#10,318
“entendait” frequency rank
37369
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Same sound, different letters: entendaient vs entendait

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

11 ch
entendaient
9 ch
entendait

Ear matches; page differs - entendaient and entendait

This is the hard kind. entendaient and entendait 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 37369, 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\. entendait is at rank #10,318, 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 37369, this pair ranks #262,964 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of entendaient vs entendait

Shared letters: adeint. Private to "entendaient": -. Private to "entendait": -.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • entendaientenetndaient · enntendaient · entednaient · entenadient · entendaeint · entendaiennt · entendaientt · entendaietn
  • entendaitenetndait · enntendait · entednait · entenadit · entendaitt · entendati · entenddait · entendiat

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "entendaient" and "entendait" 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.
In ordinary French text, does "entendaient" or "entendait" show up more?
"entendait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,318 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.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "entendaient" / "entendait". 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 "entendait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #262,964 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "entendaient" and "entendait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "entendait 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 #262,964 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