Which to use
“mettaient” and “mettant” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,441
- “mettaient” frequency rank
- #2,725
- “mettant” frequency rank
- 18166
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mettaient | mettant |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de mettre. | Participe présent de mettre. |
Where the eye mixes mettaient and mettant
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. mettaient runs 9 letters (CVCCVVVCC) against mettant's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: mettaient vs mettant
A purely visual mix-up. mettaient (\mɛ.tɛ\) and mettant (\mɛ.tɑ̃\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18166, 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\. mettant is at rank #2,725, tagged as averb, pronounced \mɛ.tɑ̃\.
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 18166, this pair ranks #379,677 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of mettaient vs mettant
Shared letters: aemnt. Private to "mettaient": i. Private to "mettant": -.
"mettaient" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVVCC · "mettant" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mettaient" and "mettant" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "mettaient" or "mettant" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "mettaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mettant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #379,677 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mettaient" and "mettant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mettaient vs montaient". 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 #379,677 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.