permettaientvspermettentConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#16,965
“permettaient” frequency rank
#1,881
“permettent” frequency rank
18846
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature permettaient permettent
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de permettre. Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de permettre.

Where the eye mixes permettaient and permettent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence.

12 ch
permettaient
10 ch
permettent

Visual trap between permettaient and permettent

A purely visual mix-up. permettaient (\pɛʁ.mɛ.tɛ\) and permettent (\pɛʁ.mɛt\) 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 18846, 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\. permettent is at rank #1,881, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ.mɛt\.

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 18846, this pair ranks #376,284 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of permettaient vs permettent

Shared letters: emnprt. Private to "permettaient": ai. Private to "permettent": -.

"permettaient" · 12 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVVCC  ·  "permettent" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • permettaienteprmettaient · pemrettaient · peremttaient · permetaient · permetatient · permettaeint · permettaiennt · permettaientt
  • permettenteprmettent · pemrettent · peremttent · permetent · permetetnt · permettennt · permettentt · permettetn

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "permettaient" for "permettent" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pɛʁ.mɛ.tɛ\ versus \pɛʁ.mɛt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "permettaient" vs "permettent" - which ranks higher?
"permettent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,881 in our French list, against #16,965 for "permettaient". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "permettaient" and "permettent" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "permettaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "permettent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #376,284 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "permettaient" and "permettent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "permettent 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 #376,284 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