Which to use
“essaya” and “essaye” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #27,804
- “essaya” frequency rank
- #2,174
- “essaye” frequency rank
- 29978
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | essaya | essaye |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de essayer. | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de essayer. |
Where the eye mixes essaya and essaye
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. essaya and essaye follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: essaya vs essaye
A purely visual mix-up. essaya (\e.sɛ.ja\) and essaye (\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 - a in “essaya” becomes e in “essaye”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29978, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
essaya is recorded at frequency rank #27,804, classified as averb, pronounced \e.sɛ.ja\. essaye is at rank #2,174, 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 29978, this pair ranks #313,243 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of essaya vs essaye
Shared letters: aesy. Private to "essaya": -. Private to "essaye": -.
"essaya" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVV · "essaye" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "essaya" for "essaye" ever safe?
Frequency check: "essaya" vs "essaye" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "essaya" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "essaye" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #313,243 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "essaya" and "essaye" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "España vs essaya". 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 #313,243 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.