Which to use
“lavait” is a verb and “lavoir” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #49,763
- “lavait” frequency rank
- #30,246
- “lavoir” frequency rank
- 80009
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lavait | lavoir |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de laver. | Bassin public alimenté en eau aménagé pour rincer le linge. |
Where the eye mixes lavait and lavoir
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. lavait and lavoir follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: lavait vs lavoir
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lavait is \la.vɛ\ while lavoir is \la.vwaʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80009, 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\. lavoir is at rank #30,246, tagged as anoun, pronounced \la.vwaʁ\.
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 80009, this pair ranks #21,958 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lavait vs lavoir
Shared letters: ailv. Private to "lavait": t. Private to "lavoir": or.
"lavait" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "lavoir" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "lavait" and "lavoir" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "lavait" or "lavoir"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "lavait" and "lavoir" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lavait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lavoir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #21,958 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lavait" and "lavoir" 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 #21,958 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.