était vs évitait, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#64
“était” frequency rank: #41,615
“évitait” frequency rank: 41679
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	était	évitait
Definition	Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait du verbe être.	Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de éviter.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set était and évitait apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

était

7 ch

évitait

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. était (\e.tɛ\) and évitait (\e.vi.tɛ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41679, 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\. évitait is at rank #41,615, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.vi.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 41679, this pair ranks #231,285 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of était vs évitait

Shared letters: aité. Private to "était": -. Private to "évitait": v.

"était" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC · "évitait" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVVC

Frequency comparison

était#64

évitait#41,615

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "était" and "évitait" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (\e.tɛ\ versus \e.vi.tɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "était" or "évitait"?

"était" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #64 in our French list, against #41,615 for "évitait". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering était vs évitait

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “était” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable