Which to use
“étai” is a noun and “était” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #48,289
- “étai” frequency rank
- #64
- “était” frequency rank
- 48353
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | étai | était |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pièce de bois ou de fer utilisée pour soutenir une construction qui menace de s’écrouler, ou qui est en travaux. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait du verbe être. |
Same sound, different letters: étai vs était
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: étai and était carry the same recorded pronunciation, \e.tɛ\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “étai” sits inside “était”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48353, 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\. était is at rank #64, tagged as averb, 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 48353, this pair ranks #179,604 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of étai vs était
Shared letters: aité. Private to "étai": -. Private to "était": -.
"étai" · 4 letters · shape VCVV · "était" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC