Which to use
“envoyait” and “envoyant” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,611
- “envoyait” frequency rank
- #10,319
- “envoyant” frequency rank
- 26930
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | envoyait | envoyant |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de envoyer. | Participe présent de envoyer. |
Where the eye mixes envoyait and envoyant
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. envoyait (VCCVVVVC) and envoyant (VCCVVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between envoyait and envoyant
A purely visual mix-up. envoyait (\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 a single letter - i in “envoyait” becomes n in “envoyant”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26930, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
envoyait is recorded at frequency rank #16,611, 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 26930, this pair ranks #331,974 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of envoyait vs envoyant
Shared letters: aenotvy. Private to "envoyait": i. Private to "envoyant": -.
"envoyait" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVVVC · "envoyant" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "envoyait" and "envoyant" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "envoyait" or "envoyant" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "envoyait" 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 #331,974 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "envoyait" and "envoyant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "envoyais vs envoyait". 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 #331,974 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.