jetavsjetaisConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#24,259
“jeta” frequency rank
#42,960
“jetais” frequency rank
67219
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature jeta jetais
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de jeter. Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de jeter.

Where the eye mixes jeta and jetais

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. jeta runs 4 letters (CVCV) against jetais's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
jeta
6 ch
jetais

Why the eye confuses jeta with jetais

A purely visual mix-up. jeta (\ʒə.ta\) and jetais (\ʒə.tɛ\) 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 extra letter(s) - “jeta” sits inside “jetais”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67219, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

jeta is recorded at frequency rank #24,259, classified as averb, pronounced \ʒə.ta\. jetais is at rank #42,960, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʒə.tɛ\.

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 67219, this pair ranks #64,377 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of jeta vs jetais

Shared letters: aejt. Private to "jeta": -. Private to "jetais": is.

"jeta" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "jetais" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • jetaejta · jeat · jetta · jjeta · jtea
  • jetaisejtais · jeatis · jetaiss · jetasi · jetias · jettais · jjetais · jteais

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "jeta" for "jetais" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʒə.ta\ versus \ʒə.tɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "jeta" or "jetais"?
"jeta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,259 in our French list, against #42,960 for "jetais". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "jeta" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "jetais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #64,377 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "jeta" and "jetais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "jais vs jetais". 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 #64,377 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