Which to use
“essai” is a noun and “essaies” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,277
- “essai” frequency rank
- #14,258
- “essaies” frequency rank
- 16535
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | essai | essaies |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Test, examen, épreuve de solidité, de pérennité, d’adéquation, de potabilité, de comestibilité, etc. | Deuxième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de essayer. |
Same sound, different letters: essai vs essaies
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. essai runs 5 letters (VCCVV) against essaies's 7 (VCCVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: essai vs essaies
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: essai and essaies 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 2 extra letter(s) - “essai” sits inside “essaies”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16535, 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\. essaies is at rank #14,258, 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 16535, this pair ranks #387,385 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of essai vs essaies
Shared letters: aeis. Private to "essai": -. Private to "essaies": -.
"essai" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV · "essaies" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "essai" for "essaies" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "essai" or "essaies" show up more?
What to do next
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 "essaies" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #387,385 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "essai" and "essaies" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "essaies vs essayée". 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 #387,385 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.