moquaientvsmoquantWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“moquaient” and “moquant” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#46,305
“moquaient” frequency rank
#36,055
“moquant” frequency rank
82360
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature moquaient moquant
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait du verbe moquer. Participe présent de moquer.

Where the eye mixes moquaient and moquant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

9 ch
moquaient
7 ch
moquant

Visual trap between moquaient and moquant

A purely visual mix-up. moquaient (\mɔ.kɛ\) and moquant (\mɔ.kɑ̃\) 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 82360, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

moquaient is recorded at frequency rank #46,305, classified as averb, pronounced \mɔ.kɛ\. moquant is at rank #36,055, tagged as averb, pronounced \mɔ.kɑ̃\.

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 82360, this pair ranks #16,896 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of moquaient vs moquant

Shared letters: amnoqtu. Private to "moquaient": ei. Private to "moquant": -.

"moquaient" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVVVCC  ·  "moquant" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • moquaientmmoquaient · moqauient · moqquaient · moquaeint · moquaiennt · moquaientt · moquaietn · moquainet
  • moquantmmoquant · moqaunt · moqquant · moquannt · moquantt · moquatn · moqunat · mouqant

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "moquaient" and "moquant" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\mɔ.kɛ\ versus \mɔ.kɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "moquaient" or "moquant"?
"moquant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,055 in our French list, against #46,305 for "moquaient". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "moquaient" and "moquant" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "moquaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moquant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,896 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "moquaient" and "moquant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "moquaient 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 #16,896 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list