mettraivsmettraitTell them apart

Which to use

“mettrai” and “mettrait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#15,681
“mettrai” frequency rank
#12,813
“mettrait” frequency rank
28494
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mettrai mettrait
Definition Première personne du singulier du futur de mettre. Troisième personne du singulier du conditionnel de mettre.

Where the eye mixes mettrai and mettrait

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. mettrai runs 7 letters (CVCCCVV) against mettrait's 8 (CVCCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
mettrai
8 ch
mettrait

Why the eye confuses mettrai with mettrait

A purely visual mix-up. mettrai (\mɛ.tʁe\) and mettrait (\mɛ.tʁɛ\) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “mettrai” sits inside “mettrait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28494, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mettrai is recorded at frequency rank #15,681, classified as averb, pronounced \mɛ.tʁe\. mettrait is at rank #12,813, tagged as averb, pronounced \mɛ.tʁɛ\.

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 28494, this pair ranks #322,425 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of mettrai vs mettrait

Shared letters: aeimrt. Private to "mettrai": -. Private to "mettrait": -.

"mettrai" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVV  ·  "mettrait" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mettrai ← emttrai · metrai · metrtai · mettari · mettria · mettrrai · mmettrai · mtetrai
  • mettrait ← emttrait · metrait · metrtait · mettarit · mettraitt · mettrati · mettriat · mettrrait

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mettrai" for "mettrait" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mɛ.tʁe\ versus \mɛ.tʁɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "mettrai" or "mettrait"?
"mettrait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,813 in our French list, against #15,681 for "mettrai". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "mettrai" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mettrait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #322,425 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mettrai" and "mettrait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mentait vs mettrait". 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 #322,425 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list