imaginaisvsimaginonsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#16,645
“imaginais” frequency rank
#18,775
“imaginons” frequency rank
35420
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature imaginais imaginons
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de imaginer. Première personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de imaginer.

Where the eye mixes imaginais and imaginons

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

9 ch
imaginais
9 ch
imaginons

Visual trap between imaginais and imaginons

A purely visual mix-up. imaginais (\i.ma.ʒi.nɛ\) and imaginons (\i.ma.ʒi.nɔ̃\) 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 35420, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

imaginais is recorded at frequency rank #16,645, classified as averb, pronounced \i.ma.ʒi.nɛ\. imaginons is at rank #18,775, tagged as averb, pronounced \i.ma.ʒi.nɔ̃\.

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 35420, this pair ranks #276,882 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of imaginais vs imaginons

Shared letters: agimns. Private to "imaginais": -. Private to "imaginons": o.

"imaginais" · 9 letters · shape VCVCVCVVC  ·  "imaginons" · 9 letters · shape VCVCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • imaginaisiamginais · imagginais · imagianis · imaginaiss · imaginasi · imaginias · imaginnais · imagniais
  • imaginonsiamginons · imagginons · imaginnons · imaginnos · imaginonns · imaginonss · imaginosn · imagionns

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "imaginais" for "imaginons" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\i.ma.ʒi.nɛ\ versus \i.ma.ʒi.nɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "imaginais" or "imaginons"?
"imaginais" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,645 in our French list, against #18,775 for "imaginons". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "imaginais" and "imaginons" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "imaginais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "imaginons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #276,882 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "imaginais" and "imaginons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "imaginais vs imaginatif". 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 #276,882 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