Which to use
“finissais” and “finissait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #43,946
- “finissais” frequency rank
- #21,940
- “finissait” frequency rank
- 65886
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | finissais | finissait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait de finir. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait de finir. |
Same sound, different letters: finissais vs finissait
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. finissais and finissait follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Ear matches; page differs - finissais and finissait
This is the hard kind. finissais and finissait are pronounced identically (\fi.ni.sɛ\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by a single letter - s in “finissais” becomes t in “finissait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65886, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
finissais is recorded at frequency rank #43,946, classified as averb, pronounced \fi.ni.sɛ\. finissait is at rank #21,940, tagged as averb, pronounced \fi.ni.sɛ\.
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 65886, this pair ranks #70,343 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of finissais vs finissait
Shared letters: afins. Private to "finissais": -. Private to "finissait": t.
"finissais" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVVC · "finissait" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "finissais" for "finissait" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "finissais" or "finissait" show up more?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "finissais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "finissait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #70,343 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "finissais" and "finissait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "finissais vs finissons". 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 #70,343 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.