Which to use
“pointait” and “pointant” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #37,485
- “pointait” frequency rank
- #21,425
- “pointant” frequency rank
- 58910
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pointait | pointant |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de pointer. | Participe présent de pointer. |
Where the eye mixes pointait and pointant
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between pointait and pointant
A purely visual mix-up. pointait (\pwɛ̃.tɛ\) and pointant (\pwɛ̃.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 a single letter - i in “pointait” becomes n in “pointant”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58910, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pointait is recorded at frequency rank #37,485, classified as averb, pronounced \pwɛ̃.tɛ\. pointant is at rank #21,425, tagged as averb, pronounced \pwɛ̃.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 58910, this pair ranks #106,201 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of pointait vs pointant
Shared letters: ainopt. Private to "pointait": -. Private to "pointant": -.
"pointait" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC · "pointant" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pointait" and "pointant" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "pointait" or "pointant" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "pointait" and "pointant" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "pointait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pointant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #106,201 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pointait" and "pointant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plantant vs pointant". 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 #106,201 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.