Which to use
“permettaient” and “permettant” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,965
- “permettaient” frequency rank
- #1,711
- “permettant” frequency rank
- 18676
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | permettaient | permettant |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de permettre. | Participe présent de permettre. |
Where the eye mixes permettaient and permettant
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence. permettaient runs 12 letters (CVCCVCCVVVCC) against permettant's 10 (CVCCVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between permettaient and permettant
A purely visual mix-up. permettaient (\pɛʁ.mɛ.tɛ\) and permettant (\pɛʁ.mɛ.tɑ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18676, 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\. permettant is at rank #1,711, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ.mɛ.tɑ̃\.
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 18676, this pair ranks #377,099 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of permettaient vs permettant
Shared letters: aemnprt. Private to "permettaient": i. Private to "permettant": -.
"permettaient" · 12 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVVCC · "permettant" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- permettaient ← eprmettaient · pemrettaient · peremttaient · permetaient · permetatient · permettaeint · permettaiennt · permettaientt
- permettant ← eprmettant · pemrettant · peremttant · permetant · permetatnt · permettannt · permettantt · permettatn
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "permettaient" and "permettant" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "permettaient" or "permettant"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "permettaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "permettant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #377,099 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "permettaient" and "permettant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "permettant vs permettons". 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 #377,099 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.