osaisvsosonsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#27,898
“osais” frequency rank
#32,510
“osons” frequency rank
60408
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature osais osons
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de oser. Première personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de oser.

Where the eye mixes osais and osons

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. osais (VCVVC) and osons (VCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
osais
5 ch
osons

Visual trap between osais and osons

A purely visual mix-up. osais (\o.zɛ\) and osons (\o.zɔ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60408, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

osais is recorded at frequency rank #27,898, classified as averb, pronounced \o.zɛ\. osons is at rank #32,510, tagged as averb, pronounced \o.zɔ̃\.

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 60408, this pair ranks #97,769 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of osais vs osons

Shared letters: os. Private to "osais": ai. Private to "osons": n.

"osais" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC  ·  "osons" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • osais ← oasis · osaiss · osasi · osias · ossais · soais
  • osons ← oosns · osnos · osonns · osonss · ososn · ossons · soons

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "osais" for "osons" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\o.zɛ\ versus \o.zɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "osais" vs "osons" - which ranks higher?
"osais" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,898 in our French list, against #32,510 for "osons". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "osais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "osons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #97,769 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "osais" and "osons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "osant vs osons". 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 #97,769 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