Which to use
“était” is a verb and “étals” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #64
- “était” frequency rank
- #34,827
- “étals” frequency rank
- 34891
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | était | étals |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait du verbe être. | Pluriel de étal. |
Where the eye mixes était and étals
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. était (VCVVC) and étals (VCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between était and étals
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: était is \e.tɛ\ while étals is \e.tal\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34891, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
était is recorded at frequency rank #64, classified as averb, pronounced \e.tɛ\. étals is at rank #34,827, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.tal\.
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 34891, this pair ranks #280,645 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of était vs étals
Shared letters: até. Private to "était": i. Private to "étals": ls.
"était" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC · "étals" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "était" and "étals" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "était" vs "étals" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "était" and "étals" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "était" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "étals" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #280,645 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "était" and "étals" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "étai vs étals". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #280,645 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.