Which to use
“montraient” and “montrait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,790
- “montraient” frequency rank
- #11,622
- “montrait” frequency rank
- 32412
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | montraient | montrait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de montrer. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de montrer. |
Same sound, different letters: montraient vs montrait
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters.
Homophone desk: montraient vs montrait
This is the hard kind. montraient and montrait are pronounced identically (\mɔ̃.tʁɛ\) 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 32412, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
montraient is recorded at frequency rank #20,790, classified as averb, pronounced \mɔ̃.tʁɛ\. montrait is at rank #11,622, 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 32412, this pair ranks #297,470 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of montraient vs montrait
Shared letters: aimnort. Private to "montraient": e. Private to "montrait": -.
"montraient" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVVVCC · "montrait" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- montraient ← mmontraient · mnotraient · monntraient · monrtaient · montarient · montraeint · montraiennt · montraientt
- montrait ← mmontrait · mnotrait · monntrait · monrtait · montarit · montraitt · montrati · montriat
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "montraient" and "montrait" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "montraient" vs "montrait" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "montraient" / "montrait". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "montraient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "montrait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #297,470 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "montraient" and "montrait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "montraient vs mouraient". 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 #297,470 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.