Which to use
“payaient” and “payait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #29,070
- “payaient” frequency rank
- #16,698
- “payait” frequency rank
- 45768
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | payaient | payait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de payer. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de payer. |
Same sound, different letters: payaient vs payait
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. payaient runs 8 letters (CVVVVVCC) against payait's 6 (CVVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: payaient vs payait
This is the hard kind. payaient and payait are pronounced identically (\pɛ.jɛ\) 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 45768, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
payaient is recorded at frequency rank #29,070, classified as averb, pronounced \pɛ.jɛ\. payait is at rank #16,698, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɛ.jɛ\.
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 45768, this pair ranks #200,179 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of payaient vs payait
Shared letters: aipty. Private to "payaient": en. Private to "payait": -.
"payaient" · 8 letters · shape CVVVVVCC · "payait" · 6 letters · shape CVVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "payaient" for "payait" ever safe?
Frequency check: "payaient" vs "payait" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "payaient" / "payait". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "payaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "payait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #200,179 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "payaient" and "payait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "payaient vs payais". 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 #200,179 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.