établirvsétablirentWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“établir” and “établirent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,498
“établir” frequency rank
#40,092
“établirent” frequency rank
42590
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature établir établirent
Definition Asseoir et fixer une chose en un endroit, l’y rendre stable. Troisième personne du pluriel du passé simple de établir.

Same sound, different letters: établir vs établirent

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. établir runs 7 letters (VCVCCVC) against établirent's 10 (VCVCCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
établir
10 ch
établirent

Ear matches; page differs - établir and établirent

This is the hard kind. établir and établirent are pronounced identically (\e.ta.bliʁ\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 3 extra letter(s) - “établir” sits inside “établirent”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42590, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

établir is recorded at frequency rank #2,498, classified as averb, pronounced \e.ta.bliʁ\. établirent is at rank #40,092, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.ta.bliʁ\.

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 42590, this pair ranks #224,453 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of établir vs établirent

Shared letters: abilrté. Private to "établir": -. Private to "établirent": en.

"établir" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC  ·  "établirent" · 10 letters · shape VCVCCVCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "établir" and "établirent" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\e.ta.bliʁ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "établir" vs "établirent" - which ranks higher?
"établir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,498 in our French list, against #40,092 for "établirent". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "établir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "établirent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #224,453 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "établir" and "établirent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "établirent vs établissent". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #224,453 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list