Which to use
“montaient” and “montent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #37,431
- “montaient” frequency rank
- #10,200
- “montent” frequency rank
- 47631
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | montaient | montent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de monter. | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de monter. |
Where the eye mixes montaient and montent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. montaient runs 9 letters (CVCCVVVCC) against montent's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: montaient vs montent
A purely visual mix-up. montaient (\mɔ̃.tɛ\) and montent (\mɔ̃t\) 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 47631, 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\. montent is at rank #10,200, tagged as averb, pronounced \mɔ̃t\.
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 47631, this pair ranks #185,419 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of montaient vs montent
Shared letters: emnot. Private to "montaient": ai. Private to "montent": -.
"montaient" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVVCC · "montent" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "montaient" and "montent" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "montaient" or "montent"?
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 "montaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "montent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #185,419 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "montaient" and "montent" 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 #185,419 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.