finissaisvsfinissonsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#43,946
“finissais” frequency rank
#42,878
“finissons” frequency rank
86824
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature finissais finissons
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait de finir. Première personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de finir.

Where the eye mixes finissais and finissons

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. finissais (CVCVCCVVC) and finissons (CVCVCCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

9 ch
finissais
9 ch
finissons

Why the eye confuses finissais with finissons

A purely visual mix-up. finissais (\fi.ni.sɛ\) and finissons (\fi.ni.sɔ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 86824, 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\. finissons is at rank #42,878, tagged as averb, pronounced \fi.ni.sɔ̃\.

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 86824, this pair ranks #9,126 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of finissais vs finissons

Shared letters: fins. Private to "finissais": a. Private to "finissons": o.

"finissais" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVVC  ·  "finissons" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • finissaisffinissais · fiinssais · finisais · finisasis · finissaiss · finissasi · finissias · finnissais
  • finissonsffinissons · fiinssons · finisons · finisosns · finissnos · finissonns · finissonss · finissosn

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "finissais" for "finissons" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\fi.ni.sɛ\ versus \fi.ni.sɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "finissais" vs "finissons" - which ranks higher?
"finissons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #42,878 in our French list, against #43,946 for "finissais". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "finissais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "finissons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #9,126 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "finissais" and "finissons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "finissaient vs finissais". 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 #9,126 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