Which to use
“essaya” and “essayez” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #27,804
- “essaya” frequency rank
- #3,913
- “essayez” frequency rank
- 31717
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | essaya | essayez |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de essayer. | Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de essayer. |
Where the eye mixes essaya and essayez
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. essaya runs 6 letters (VCCVVV) against essayez's 7 (VCCVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses essaya with essayez
A purely visual mix-up. essaya (\e.sɛ.ja\) and essayez (\e.sɛ.je\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31717, 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\. essayez is at rank #3,913, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.sɛ.je\.
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 31717, this pair ranks #301,991 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of essaya vs essayez
Shared letters: aesy. Private to "essaya": -. Private to "essayez": z.
"essaya" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVV · "essayez" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "essaya" and "essayez" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "essaya" or "essayez"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "essaya" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "essayez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #301,991 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "essaya" and "essayez" 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 #301,991 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.