Which to use
“montaient” and “montraient” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #37,431
- “montaient” frequency rank
- #20,790
- “montraient” frequency rank
- 58221
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | montaient | montraient |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de monter. | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de montrer. |
Where the eye mixes montaient and montraient
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. montaient runs 9 letters (CVCCVVVCC) against montraient's 10 (CVCCCVVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between montaient and montraient
A purely visual mix-up. montaient (\mɔ̃.tɛ\) and montraient (\mɔ̃.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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58221, 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\. montraient is at rank #20,790, tagged as averb, pronounced \mɔ̃.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 58221, this pair ranks #110,317 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of montaient vs montraient
Shared letters: aeimnot. Private to "montaient": -. Private to "montraient": r.
"montaient" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVVCC · "montraient" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- montaient ← mmontaient · mnotaient · monatient · monntaient · montaeint · montaiennt · montaientt · montaietn
- montraient ← mmontraient · mnotraient · monntraient · monrtaient · montarient · montraeint · montraiennt · montraientt
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "montaient" and "montraient" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "montaient" or "montraient"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "montaient" and "montraient" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "montaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "montraient" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #110,317 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "montaient" and "montraient" 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 #110,317 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.