Which to use
“mettaient” and “mettait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,441
- “mettaient” frequency rank
- #6,631
- “mettait” frequency rank
- 22072
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mettaient | mettait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de mettre. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de mettre. |
Same sound, different letters: mettaient vs mettait
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters.
Same sound, different spelling - mettaient / mettait
This is the hard kind. mettaient and mettait are pronounced identically (\mɛ.tɛ\) 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 22072, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mettaient is recorded at frequency rank #15,441, classified as averb, pronounced \mɛ.tɛ\. mettait is at rank #6,631, tagged as averb, pronounced \mɛ.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 22072, this pair ranks #359,945 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mettaient vs mettait
Shared letters: aeimt. Private to "mettaient": n. Private to "mettait": -.
"mettaient" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVVCC · "mettait" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mettaient" and "mettait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "mettaient" or "mettait"?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "mettaient" / "mettait". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "mettaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mettait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #359,945 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mettaient" and "mettait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mentant vs mettait". 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 #359,945 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.