Which to use
“lavait” is a verb and “lavis” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #49,763
- “lavait” frequency rank
- #41,866
- “lavis” frequency rank
- 91629
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lavait | lavis |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de laver. | Technique de dessin utilisant une seule couleur provenant souvent de l’encre de Chine, mais aussi le bistre, la sépia ou quelque autre substance colorante qui sont utilisées à des degrés de dilution divers. |
Where the eye mixes lavait and lavis
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. lavait runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against lavis's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses lavait with lavis
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lavait is \la.vɛ\ while lavis is \la.vi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 91629, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lavait is recorded at frequency rank #49,763, classified as averb, pronounced \la.vɛ\. lavis is at rank #41,866, tagged as anoun, pronounced \la.vi\.
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 91629, this pair ranks #3,665 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lavait vs lavis
Shared letters: ailv. Private to "lavait": t. Private to "lavis": s.
"lavait" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "lavis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "lavait" and "lavis" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "lavait" or "lavis" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "lavait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lavis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #3,665 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lavait" and "lavis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lavait vs liait". 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 #3,665 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.