permettaitvspermettraisWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#6,539
“permettait” frequency rank
#49,268
“permettrais” frequency rank
55807
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature permettait permettrais
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de permettre. Première personne du singulier du conditionnel de permettre.

Where the eye mixes permettait and permettrais

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. permettait runs 10 letters (CVCCVCCVVC) against permettrais's 11 (CVCCVCCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
permettait
11 ch
permettrais

Visual trap between permettait and permettrais

A purely visual mix-up. permettait (\pɛʁ.mɛ.tɛ\) and permettrais (\pɛʁ.mɛ.tʁɛ\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55807, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

permettait is recorded at frequency rank #6,539, classified as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ.mɛ.tɛ\. permettrais is at rank #49,268, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɛʁ.mɛ.tʁɛ\.

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 55807, this pair ranks #125,104 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of permettait vs permettrais

Shared letters: aeimprt. Private to "permettait": -. Private to "permettrais": s.

"permettait" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVC  ·  "permettrais" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • permettaiteprmettait · pemrettait · peremttait · permetait · permetatit · permettaitt · permettati · permettiat
  • permettraiseprmettrais · pemrettrais · peremttrais · permetrais · permetrtais · permettaris · permettraiss · permettrasi

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "permettait" for "permettrais" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pɛʁ.mɛ.tɛ\ versus \pɛʁ.mɛ.tʁɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "permettait" or "permettrais" show up more?
"permettait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,539 in our French list, against #49,268 for "permettrais". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "permettait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "permettrais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #125,104 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "permettait" and "permettrais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "permettrai 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 #125,104 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