Which to use
“mettaient” and “montaient” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,441
- “mettaient” frequency rank
- #37,431
- “montaient” frequency rank
- 52872
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mettaient | montaient |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de mettre. | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de monter. |
Where the eye mixes mettaient and montaient
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between mettaient and montaient
A purely visual mix-up. mettaient (\mɛ.tɛ\) and montaient (\mɔ̃.tɛ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52872, 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\. montaient is at rank #37,431, tagged as averb, pronounced \mɔ̃.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 52872, this pair ranks #144,675 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of mettaient vs montaient
Shared letters: aeimnt. Private to "mettaient": -. Private to "montaient": o.
"mettaient" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVVCC · "montaient" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "mettaient" and "montaient" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "mettaient" or "montaient" 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 "montaient" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #144,675 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mettaient" and "montaient" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "montaient vs montais". 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 #144,675 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.