évitaitvsévitantWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: évitait is a verb, évitant is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“évitait” is a verb and “évitant” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41,615
“évitait” frequency rank
#11,332
“évitant” frequency rank
52947
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature évitait évitant
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de éviter. Relatif à une personnalité prudente et timide, qui fuit les relations avec les autres de peur de leur paraître inférieure.

Where the eye mixes évitait and évitant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. évitait (VCVCVVC) and évitant (VCVCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
évitait
7 ch
évitant

Look-alike desk: évitait vs évitant

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: évitait is \e.vi.tɛ\ while évitant is \e.vi.tɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - i in “évitait” becomes n in “évitant”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52947, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

évitait is recorded at frequency rank #41,615, classified as averb, pronounced \e.vi.tɛ\. évitant is at rank #11,332, tagged as anadj, pronounced \e.vi.tɑ̃\.

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 52947, this pair ranks #144,169 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of évitait vs évitant

Shared letters: aitvé. Private to "évitait": -. Private to "évitant": n.

"évitait" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVVC  ·  "évitant" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "évitait" and "évitant" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "évitait" is a verb and "évitant" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "évitait" or "évitant" show up more?
"évitant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,332 in our French list, against #41,615 for "évitait". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "évitait" and "évitant" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "évitait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "évitant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #144,169 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "évitait" and "évitant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "évitait vs éviterait". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #144,169 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list