étaivsexamWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#48,289
“étai” frequency rank
#28,546
“exam” frequency rank
76835
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature étai exam
Definition Pièce de bois ou de fer utilisée pour soutenir une construction qui menace de s’écrouler, ou qui est en travaux. Examen (dans le sens lié aux études universitaires).

Where the eye mixes étai and exam

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

4 ch
étai
4 ch
exam

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. étai (\e.tɛ\) and exam (\ɛɡ.zam\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76835, 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\. exam is at rank #28,546, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛɡ.zam\.

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 76835, this pair ranks #30,050 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of étai vs exam

Shared letters: a. Private to "étai": ité. Private to "exam": emx.

"étai" · 4 letters · shape VCVV  ·  "exam" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • exameaxm · examm · exma · exxam · xeam

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "étai" and "exam" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\e.tɛ\ versus \ɛɡ.zam\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "étai" or "exam"?
"exam" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,546 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