entendaientvsentendantTell them apart

Quick tell: entendaient is a verb, entendant is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“entendaient” is a verb and “entendant” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#27,051
“entendaient” frequency rank
#15,622
“entendant” frequency rank
42673
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature entendaient entendant
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de entendre. Qui entend depuis la naissance.

Where the eye mixes entendaient and entendant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. entendaient runs 11 letters (VCCVCCVVVCC) against entendant's 9 (VCCVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

11 ch
entendaient
9 ch
entendant

Visual trap between entendaient and entendant

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: entendaient is \ɑ̃.tɑ̃.dɛ\ while entendant is \ɑ̃.tɑ̃.dɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42673, 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\. entendant is at rank #15,622, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɑ̃.tɑ̃.dɑ̃\.

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 42673, this pair ranks #223,835 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of entendaient vs entendant

Shared letters: adent. Private to "entendaient": i. Private to "entendant": -.

"entendaient" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCCVVVCC  ·  "entendant" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • entendaient ← enetndaient · enntendaient · entednaient · entenadient · entendaeint · entendaiennt · entendaientt · entendaietn
  • entendant ← enetndant · enntendant · entednant · entenadnt · entendannt · entendantt · entendatn · entenddant

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "entendaient" and "entendant" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "entendaient" is a verb and "entendant" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "entendaient" or "entendant"?
"entendant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,622 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

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "entendaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "entendant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #223,835 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "entendaient" and "entendant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "entendant vs entendront". 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 #223,835 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