fournissaientvsfournissantWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#49,096
“fournissaient” frequency rank
#14,044
“fournissant” frequency rank
63140
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fournissaient fournissant
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif imparfait de fournir. Participe présent de fournir.

Where the eye mixes fournissaient and fournissant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 11 letters in sequence. fournissaient runs 13 letters (CVVCCVCCVVVCC) against fournissant's 11 (CVVCCVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

13 ch
fournissaient
11 ch
fournissant

Look-alike desk: fournissaient vs fournissant

A purely visual mix-up. fournissaient (\fuʁ.ni.sɛ\) and fournissant (\fuʁ.ni.sɑ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63140, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fournissaient is recorded at frequency rank #49,096, classified as averb, pronounced \fuʁ.ni.sɛ\. fournissant is at rank #14,044, tagged as averb, pronounced \fuʁ.ni.sɑ̃\.

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 63140, this pair ranks #83,543 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fournissaient vs fournissant

Shared letters: afinorstu. Private to "fournissaient": e. Private to "fournissant": -.

"fournissaient" · 13 letters · shape CVVCCVCCVVVCC  ·  "fournissant" · 11 letters · shape CVVCCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fournissaient ← ffournissaient · forunissaient · founrissaient · fourinssaient · fournisaient · fournisasient · fournissaeint · fournissaiennt
  • fournissant ← ffournissant · forunissant · founrissant · fourinssant · fournisant · fournisasnt · fournissannt · fournissantt

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fournissaient" for "fournissant" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\fuʁ.ni.sɛ\ versus \fuʁ.ni.sɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "fournissaient" vs "fournissant" - which ranks higher?
"fournissant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,044 in our French list, against #49,096 for "fournissaient". 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 "fournissaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fournissant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #83,543 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fournissaient" and "fournissant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fournissaient vs fournissait". 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 #83,543 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