Which to use
“essai” is a noun and “essaie” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,277
- “essai” frequency rank
- #1,813
- “essaie” frequency rank
- 4090
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | essai | essaie |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Test, examen, épreuve de solidité, de pérennité, d’adéquation, de potabilité, de comestibilité, etc. | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de essayer. |
Same sound, different letters: essai vs essaie
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. essai runs 5 letters (VCCVV) against essaie's 6 (VCCVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - essai / essaie
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: essai and essaie carry the same recorded pronunciation, \e.sɛ\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “essai” sits inside “essaie”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4090, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
essai is recorded at frequency rank #2,277, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.sɛ\. essaie is at rank #1,813, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.sɛ\.
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 4090, this pair ranks #432,488 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of essai vs essaie
Shared letters: aeis. Private to "essai": -. Private to "essaie": -.
"essai" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV · "essaie" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "essai" and "essaie" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "essai" or "essaie" show up more?
After this comparison
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "essai" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "essaie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #432,488 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "essai" and "essaie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "essai vs essay". 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 #432,488 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.