Which to use
“parlaient” and “parlait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,920
- “parlaient” frequency rank
- #2,946
- “parlait” frequency rank
- 13866
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | parlaient | parlait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de parler. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de parler. |
Same sound, different letters: parlaient vs parlait
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. parlaient runs 9 letters (CVCCVVVCC) against parlait's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - parlaient and parlait
This is the hard kind. parlaient and parlait are pronounced identically (\paʁ.lɛ\) 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 13866, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
parlaient is recorded at frequency rank #10,920, classified as averb, pronounced \paʁ.lɛ\. parlait is at rank #2,946, tagged as averb, pronounced \paʁ.lɛ\.
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 13866, this pair ranks #399,227 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of parlaient vs parlait
Shared letters: ailprt. Private to "parlaient": en. Private to "parlait": -.
"parlaient" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVVCC · "parlait" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "parlaient" and "parlait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "parlaient" vs "parlait" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "parlaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "parlait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #399,227 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "parlaient" and "parlait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Paravent vs parlaient". 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 #399,227 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.