Which to use
“était” is a verb and “étroit” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #64
- “était” frequency rank
- #9,421
- “étroit” frequency rank
- 9485
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | était | étroit |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait du verbe être. | De petite largeur. |
Where the eye mixes était and étroit
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. était runs 5 letters (VCVVC) against étroit's 6 (VCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between était and étroit
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: était is \e.tɛ\ while étroit is \e.tʁwa\. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9485, 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\. étroit is at rank #9,421, tagged as anadj, pronounced \e.tʁwa\.
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 9485, this pair ranks #416,477 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of était vs étroit
Shared letters: ité. Private to "était": a. Private to "étroit": or.
"était" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC · "étroit" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "était" and "étroit" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "était" vs "étroit" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "était" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "étroit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #416,477 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "était" and "étroit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "émit vs était". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #416,477 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.