Which to use
“montraient” and “montrant” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,790
- “montraient” frequency rank
- #4,962
- “montrant” frequency rank
- 25752
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | montraient | montrant |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de montrer. | Participe présent de montrer. |
Where the eye mixes montraient and montrant
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. montraient runs 10 letters (CVCCCVVVCC) against montrant's 8 (CVCCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses montraient with montrant
A purely visual mix-up. montraient (\mɔ̃.tʁɛ\) and montrant (\mɔ̃.tʁɑ̃\) 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 25752, 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\. montrant is at rank #4,962, tagged as averb, pronounced \mɔ̃.tʁɑ̃\.
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 25752, this pair ranks #339,052 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of montraient vs montrant
Shared letters: amnort. Private to "montraient": ei. Private to "montrant": -.
"montraient" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCVVVCC · "montrant" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- montraient ← mmontraient · mnotraient · monntraient · monrtaient · montarient · montraeint · montraiennt · montraientt
- montrant ← mmontrant · mnotrant · monntrant · monrtant · montarnt · montrannt · montrantt · montratn
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "montraient" for "montrant" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "montraient" or "montrant" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "montraient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "montrant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #339,052 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "montraient" and "montrant" 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 #339,052 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.