Which to use
“montaient” and “montait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #37,431
- “montaient” frequency rank
- #16,679
- “montait” frequency rank
- 54110
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | montaient | montait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de monter. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de monter. |
Same sound, different letters: montaient vs montait
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. montaient runs 9 letters (CVCCVVVCC) against montait's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - montaient / montait
This is the hard kind. montaient and montait are pronounced identically (\mɔ̃.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 54110, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
montaient is recorded at frequency rank #37,431, classified as averb, pronounced \mɔ̃.tɛ\. montait is at rank #16,679, 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 54110, this pair ranks #136,225 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of montaient vs montait
Shared letters: aimnot. Private to "montaient": e. Private to "montait": -.
"montaient" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVVCC · "montait" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "montaient" and "montait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "montaient" vs "montait" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "montaient" / "montait". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "montaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "montait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #136,225 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "montaient" and "montait" 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 #136,225 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.