Which to use
“permettaient” and “permettait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,965
- “permettaient” frequency rank
- #6,539
- “permettait” frequency rank
- 23504
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | permettaient | permettait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de permettre. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de permettre. |
Same sound, different letters: permettaient vs permettait
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 10 letters.
Same sound, different spelling - permettaient / permettait
This is the hard kind. permettaient and permettait are pronounced identically (\pɛʁ.mɛ.tɛ\) 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 23504, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
permettaient is recorded at frequency rank #16,965, classified as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ.mɛ.tɛ\. permettait is at rank #6,539, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ.mɛ.tɛ\.
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 23504, this pair ranks #352,129 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of permettaient vs permettait
Shared letters: aeimprt. Private to "permettaient": n. Private to "permettait": -.
"permettaient" · 12 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVVCC · "permettait" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- permettaient ← eprmettaient · pemrettaient · peremttaient · permetaient · permetatient · permettaeint · permettaiennt · permettaientt
- permettait ← eprmettait · pemrettait · peremttait · permetait · permetatit · permettaitt · permettati · permettiat
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "permettaient" and "permettait" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "permettaient" vs "permettait" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "permettaient" / "permettait". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "permettaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "permettait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #352,129 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "permettaient" and "permettait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "permettait vs permettrais". 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 #352,129 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.