esta vs ETI, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“esta” is a verb and “ETI” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,787
“esta” frequency rank: #38,788
“ETI” frequency rank: 77575
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	esta	ETI
Definition	Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple du verbe ester.	Entreprise qui a entre 250 et 4999 salariés et respecte certains critères en matière de bilan et de chiffre d'affaires.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set esta and ETI apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

esta

3 ch

ETI

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: esta is \ɛs.ta\ while ETI is \ø.te.i\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77575, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

esta is recorded at frequency rank #38,787, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛs.ta\. ETI is at rank #38,788, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ø.te.i\.

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 77575, this pair ranks #27,979 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of esta vs ETI

Shared letters: et. Private to "esta": as. Private to "ETI": i.

"esta" · 4 letters · shape VCCV · "ETI" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Known mistypes of this pair

esta ← essta · estta · etsa

Frequency comparison

esta#38,787

ETI#38,788

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "esta" and "ETI" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "esta" is a verb and "ETI" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "esta" or "ETI"?

"esta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,787 in our French list, against #38,788 for "ETI". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering esta vs ETI

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “esta”; for a noun, it's “ETI”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “esta” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable