envoyaientvsenvoyantTell them apart

Which to use

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

#35,504
“envoyaient” frequency rank
#10,319
“envoyant” frequency rank
45823
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature envoyaient envoyant
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de envoyer. Participe présent de envoyer.

Where the eye mixes envoyaient and envoyant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. envoyaient runs 10 letters (VCCVVVVVCC) against envoyant's 8 (VCCVVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
envoyaient
8 ch
envoyant

Visual trap between envoyaient and envoyant

A purely visual mix-up. envoyaient (\ɑ̃.vwa.jɛ\) and envoyant (\ɑ̃.vwa.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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45823, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

envoyaient is recorded at frequency rank #35,504, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.vwa.jɛ\. envoyant is at rank #10,319, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.vwa.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 45823, this pair ranks #199,761 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of envoyaient vs envoyant

Shared letters: aenotvy. Private to "envoyaient": i. Private to "envoyant": -.

"envoyaient" · 10 letters · shape VCCVVVVVCC  ·  "envoyant" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • envoyaient ← ennvoyaient · enovyaient · envoayient · envoyaeint · envoyaiennt · envoyaientt · envoyaietn · envoyainet
  • envoyant ← ennvoyant · enovyant · envoaynt · envoyannt · envoyantt · envoyatn · envoynat · envoyyant

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "envoyaient" and "envoyant" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃.vwa.jɛ\ versus \ɑ̃.vwa.jɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "envoyaient" or "envoyant"?
"envoyant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,319 in our French list, against #35,504 for "envoyaient". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "envoyaient" and "envoyant" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "envoyaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "envoyant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #199,761 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "envoyaient" and "envoyant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "envoyaient 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 #199,761 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