Which to use
“gagnaient” and “gagnais” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #37,345
- “gagnaient” frequency rank
- #39,314
- “gagnais” frequency rank
- 76659
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gagnaient | gagnais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de gagner. | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de gagner. |
Same sound, different letters: gagnaient vs gagnais
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. gagnaient runs 9 letters (CVCCVVVCC) against gagnais's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: gagnaient vs gagnais
This is the hard kind. gagnaient and gagnais are pronounced identically (\ɡa.ɲɛ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76659, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
gagnaient is recorded at frequency rank #37,345, classified as averb, pronounced \ɡa.ɲɛ\. gagnais is at rank #39,314, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɡa.ɲɛ\.
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 76659, this pair ranks #30,518 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of gagnaient vs gagnais
Shared letters: agin. Private to "gagnaient": et. Private to "gagnais": s.
"gagnaient" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVVCC · "gagnais" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "gagnaient" for "gagnais" ever safe?
Frequency check: "gagnaient" vs "gagnais" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "gagnaient" / "gagnais". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "gagnaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "gagnais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #30,518 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "gagnaient" and "gagnais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gagnais vs gagnerais". 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 #30,518 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.