Which to use
“essaies” and “essayes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,258
- “essaies” frequency rank
- #13,377
- “essayes” frequency rank
- 27635
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | essaies | essayes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Deuxième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de essayer. | Deuxième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de essayer. |
Where the eye mixes essaies and essayes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. essaies and essayes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between essaies and essayes
A purely visual mix-up. essaies (\e.sɛ\) and essayes (\e.sɛj\) 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 “essaies” becomes y in “essayes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27635, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
essaies is recorded at frequency rank #14,258, classified as averb, pronounced \e.sɛ\. essayes is at rank #13,377, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.sɛj\.
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 27635, this pair ranks #327,795 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of essaies vs essayes
Shared letters: aes. Private to "essaies": i. Private to "essayes": y.
"essaies" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVVC · "essayes" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "essaies" for "essayes" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "essaies" or "essayes" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "essaies" and "essayes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "essaies" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "essayes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #327,795 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "essaies" and "essayes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "essay vs essayes". 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 #327,795 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.