envoyavsenvoyaisWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#16,610
“envoya” frequency rank
#43,417
“envoyais” frequency rank
60027
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature envoya envoyais
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de envoyer. Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de envoyer.

Where the eye mixes envoya and envoyais

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. envoya runs 6 letters (VCCVVV) against envoyais's 8 (VCCVVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
envoya
8 ch
envoyais

Why the eye confuses envoya with envoyais

A purely visual mix-up. envoya (\ɑ̃.vwa.ja\) and envoyais (\ɑ̃.vwa.jɛ\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “envoya” sits inside “envoyais”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60027, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

envoya is recorded at frequency rank #16,610, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.vwa.ja\. envoyais is at rank #43,417, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.vwa.jɛ\.

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 60027, this pair ranks #99,861 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of envoya vs envoyais

Shared letters: aenovy. Private to "envoya": -. Private to "envoyais": is.

"envoya" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVV  ·  "envoyais" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • envoya ← ennvoya · enovya · envoay · envoyya · envvoya · envyoa · evnoya · nevoya
  • envoyais ← ennvoyais · enovyais · envoayis · envoyaiss · envoyasi · envoyias · envoyyais · envvoyais

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "envoya" for "envoyais" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃.vwa.ja\ versus \ɑ̃.vwa.jɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "envoya" or "envoyais"?
"envoya" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,610 in our French list, against #43,417 for "envoyais". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "envoya" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "envoyais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #99,861 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "envoya" and "envoyais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ennuyais vs envoyais". 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 #99,861 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