Which to use
“essaient” and “essayaient” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,161
- “essaient” frequency rank
- #25,995
- “essayaient” frequency rank
- 35156
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | essaient | essayaient |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe essayer. | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de essayer. |
Where the eye mixes essaient and essayaient
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses essaient with essayaient
A purely visual mix-up. essaient (\e.sɛ\) and essayaient (\e.sɛ.jɛ\) 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 35156, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
essaient is recorded at frequency rank #9,161, classified as averb, pronounced \e.sɛ\. essayaient is at rank #25,995, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.sɛ.jɛ\.
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 35156, this pair ranks #278,754 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of essaient vs essayaient
Shared letters: aeinst. Private to "essaient": -. Private to "essayaient": y.
"essaient" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVVCC · "essayaient" · 10 letters · shape VCCVVVVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- essaient ← esaient · esasient · essaeint · essaiennt · essaientt · essaietn · essainet · essiaent
- essayaient ← esasyaient · esayaient · essaayient · essayaeint · essayaiennt · essayaientt · essayaietn · essayainet
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "essaient" for "essayaient" ever safe?
Frequency check: "essaient" vs "essayaient" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "essaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "essayaient" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #278,754 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "essaient" and "essayaient" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "essaient vs essaiera". 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 #278,754 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.