fournissaitvsfournissentWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#28,565
“fournissait” frequency rank
#9,838
“fournissent” frequency rank
38403
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fournissait fournissent
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait de fournir. Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de fournir.

Where the eye mixes fournissait and fournissent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. fournissait (CVVCCVCCVVC) and fournissent (CVVCCVCCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

11 ch
fournissait
11 ch
fournissent

Look-alike desk: fournissait vs fournissent

A purely visual mix-up. fournissait (\fuʁ.ni.sɛ\) and fournissent (\fuʁ.nis\) 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 38403, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fournissait is recorded at frequency rank #28,565, classified as averb, pronounced \fuʁ.ni.sɛ\. fournissent is at rank #9,838, tagged as averb, pronounced \fuʁ.nis\.

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 38403, this pair ranks #255,492 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fournissait vs fournissent

Shared letters: finorstu. Private to "fournissait": a. Private to "fournissent": e.

"fournissait" · 11 letters · shape CVVCCVCCVVC  ·  "fournissent" · 11 letters · shape CVVCCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fournissait ← ffournissait · forunissait · founrissait · fourinssait · fournisait · fournisasit · fournissaitt · fournissati
  • fournissent ← ffournissent · forunissent · founrissent · fourinssent · fournisent · fournisesnt · fournissennt · fournissentt

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "fournissait" and "fournissent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\fuʁ.ni.sɛ\ versus \fuʁ.nis\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "fournissait" or "fournissent"?
"fournissent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,838 in our French list, against #28,565 for "fournissait". 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 "fournissait" and "fournissent" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fournissait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fournissent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #255,492 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fournissait" and "fournissent" 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 #255,492 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