filaitvsfilantWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#36,391
“filait” frequency rank
#41,790
“filant” frequency rank
78181
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature filait filant
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de filer. Qui coule sans se diviser et s’allonge en une apparence de fil continu.

Where the eye mixes filait and filant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. filait (CVCVVC) and filant (CVCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
filait
6 ch
filant

Look-alike desk: filait vs filant

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: filait is \fi.lɛ\ while filant is \fi.lɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - i in “filait” becomes n in “filant”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78181, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

filait is recorded at frequency rank #36,391, classified as averb, pronounced \fi.lɛ\. filant is at rank #41,790, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fi.lɑ̃\.

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 78181, this pair ranks #26,415 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of filait vs filant

Shared letters: afilt. Private to "filait": -. Private to "filant": n.

"filait" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "filant" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • filaitffilait · fialit · filaitt · filati · filiat · fillait · fliait · iflait
  • filantffilant · fialnt · filannt · filantt · filatn · fillant · filnat · fliant

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "filait" and "filant" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "filait" is a verb and "filant" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "filait" or "filant"?
"filait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,391 in our French list, against #41,790 for "filant". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "filait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "filant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #26,415 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "filait" and "filant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "filant vs filmant". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #26,415 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