Which to use
“étai” and “étais” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,289
- “étai” frequency rank
- #358
- “étais” frequency rank
- 48647
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | étai | étais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pièce de bois ou de fer utilisée pour soutenir une construction qui menace de s’écrouler, ou qui est en travaux. | Pluriel de étai. |
Same sound, different letters: étai vs étais
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
This is the hard kind. étai and étais are pronounced identically (\e.tɛ\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “étai” sits inside “étais”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48647, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
étai is recorded at frequency rank #48,289, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.tɛ\. étais is at rank #358, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.tɛ\.
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 48647, this pair ranks #177,160 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of étai vs étais
Shared letters: aité. Private to "étai": -. Private to "étais": s.
"étai" · 4 letters · shape VCVV · "étais" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC