étaivsevaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: étai is a noun, eva is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#48,289
“étai” frequency rank
#6,822
“eva” frequency rank
55111
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature étai eva
Definition Pièce de bois ou de fer utilisée pour soutenir une construction qui menace de s’écrouler, ou qui est en travaux. Boire.

Where the eye mixes étai and eva

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

4 ch
étai
3 ch
eva

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: étai is \e.tɛ\ while eva is \ˈəva\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55111, 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\. eva is at rank #6,822, tagged as averb, pronounced \ˈəva\.

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 55111, this pair ranks #129,603 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of étai vs eva

Shared letters: a. Private to "étai": ité. Private to "eva": ev.

"étai" · 4 letters · shape VCVV  ·  "eva" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "étai" and "eva" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "étai" is a noun and "eva" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "étai" or "eva"?
"eva" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,822 in our French list, against #48,289 for "étai". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list