paraitvspesaitWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#4,261
“parait” frequency rank
#22,649
“pesait” frequency rank
26910
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature parait pesait
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait du verbe parer. Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de peser.

Where the eye mixes parait and pesait

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
parait
6 ch
pesait

Why the eye confuses parait with pesait

A purely visual mix-up. parait (\pa.ʁɛ\) and pesait (\pə.zɛ\) 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 26910, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

parait is recorded at frequency rank #4,261, classified as averb, pronounced \pa.ʁɛ\. pesait is at rank #22,649, tagged as averb, pronounced \pə.zɛ\.

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 26910, this pair ranks #332,108 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of parait vs pesait

Shared letters: aipt. Private to "parait": r. Private to "pesait": es.

"parait" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "pesait" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • paraitaprait · paarit · paraitt · parati · pariat · parrait · pparait · praait
  • pesaitepsait · peasit · pesaitt · pesati · pesiat · pessait · ppesait · pseait

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "parait" and "pesait" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pa.ʁɛ\ versus \pə.zɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "parait" vs "pesait" - which ranks higher?
"parait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,261 in our French list, against #22,649 for "pesait". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "parait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pesait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #332,108 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "parait" and "pesait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pendait vs pesait". 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 #332,108 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