Which to use
“essayes” and “essuyé” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,377
- “essayes” frequency rank
- #24,580
- “essuyé” frequency rank
- 37957
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | essayes | essuyé |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Deuxième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de essayer. | Participe passé masculin singulier de essuyer. |
Where the eye mixes essayes and essuyé
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. essayes runs 7 letters (VCCVVVC) against essuyé's 6 (VCCVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses essayes with essuyé
A purely visual mix-up. essayes (\e.sɛj\) and essuyé (\e.sɥi.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 37957, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
essayes is recorded at frequency rank #13,377, classified as averb, pronounced \e.sɛj\. essuyé is at rank #24,580, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.sɥi.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 37957, this pair ranks #258,749 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of essayes vs essuyé
Shared letters: esy. Private to "essayes": a. Private to "essuyé": ué.
"essayes" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVVC · "essuyé" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- essayes ← esasyes · esayes · essaeys · essayess · essayse · essayyes · essyaes · sesayes
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "essayes" and "essuyé" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "essayes" or "essuyé" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "essayes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "essuyé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #258,749 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "essayes" and "essuyé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "essay vs essuyé". 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 #258,749 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.