espérait vs esprit, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“espérait” is a verb and “esprit” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,042
“espérait” frequency rank: #611
“esprit” frequency rank: 11653
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	espérait	esprit
Definition	Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de espérer.	Substance incorporelle et immatérielle.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set espérait and esprit apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

8 ch

espérait

6 ch

esprit

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: espérait is \ɛs.pe.ʁɛ\ while esprit is \ɛs.pʁi\. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11653, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

espérait is recorded at frequency rank #11,042, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛs.pe.ʁɛ\. esprit is at rank #611, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛs.pʁi\.

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 11653, this pair ranks #408,332 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of espérait vs esprit

Shared letters: eiprst. Private to "espérait": aé. Private to "esprit": -.

"espérait" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVVC · "esprit" · 6 letters · shape VCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

esprit ← epsrit · espirt · espprit · espritt · esprrit · esprti · esrpit · essprit

Frequency comparison

espérait#11,042

esprit#611

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "espérait" and "esprit" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "espérait" is a verb and "esprit" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "espérait" or "esprit"?

"esprit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #611 in our French list, against #11,042 for "espérait". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering espérait vs esprit

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “espérait”; for a noun, it's “esprit”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “espérait” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable