Which to use
“formait” and “formaté” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #22,865
- “formait” frequency rank
- #48,537
- “formaté” frequency rank
- 71402
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | formait | formaté |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de former. | Participe passé masculin singulier de formater. |
Where the eye mixes formait and formaté
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: formait vs formaté
A purely visual mix-up. formait (\fɔʁ.mɛ\) and formaté (\fɔʁ.ma.te\) 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 71402, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
formait is recorded at frequency rank #22,865, classified as averb, pronounced \fɔʁ.mɛ\. formaté is at rank #48,537, tagged as averb, pronounced \fɔʁ.ma.te\.
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 71402, this pair ranks #47,688 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of formait vs formaté
Shared letters: afmort. Private to "formait": i. Private to "formaté": é.
"formait" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "formaté" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- formait ← fformait · fomrait · foramit · formaitt · formati · formiat · formmait · forrmait
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "formait" for "formaté" ever safe?
Frequency check: "formait" vs "formaté" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "formait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "formaté" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #47,688 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "formait" and "formaté" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "formaté vs formater". 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 #47,688 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.