Which to use
“essayais” and “essayant” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,128
- “essayais” frequency rank
- #7,689
- “essayant” frequency rank
- 24817
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | essayais | essayant |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de essayer. | Participe présent de essayer. |
Where the eye mixes essayais and essayant
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. essayais (VCCVVVVC) and essayant (VCCVVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses essayais with essayant
A purely visual mix-up. essayais (\e.sɛ.jɛ\) and essayant (\e.sɛ.jɑ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24817, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
essayais is recorded at frequency rank #17,128, classified as averb, pronounced \e.sɛ.jɛ\. essayant is at rank #7,689, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.sɛ.jɑ̃\.
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 24817, this pair ranks #344,441 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of essayais vs essayant
Shared letters: aesy. Private to "essayais": i. Private to "essayant": nt.
"essayais" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVVVC · "essayant" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "essayais" and "essayant" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "essayais" vs "essayant" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "essayais" and "essayant" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "essayais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "essayant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #344,441 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "essayais" and "essayant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "essayais vs essayerais". 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 #344,441 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.