Which to use
“posaient” and “posais” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #33,408
- “posaient” frequency rank
- #26,477
- “posais” frequency rank
- 59885
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | posaient | posais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de poser. | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de poser. |
Same sound, different letters: posaient vs posais
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. posaient runs 8 letters (CVCVVVCC) against posais's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - posaient and posais
This is the hard kind. posaient and posais are pronounced identically (\po.zɛ\) 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 59885, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
posaient is recorded at frequency rank #33,408, classified as averb, pronounced \po.zɛ\. posais is at rank #26,477, tagged as averb, pronounced \po.zɛ\.
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 59885, this pair ranks #100,660 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of posaient vs posais
Shared letters: aiops. Private to "posaient": ent. Private to "posais": -.
"posaient" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVVCC · "posais" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "posaient" and "posais" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "posaient" or "posais"?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "posaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "posais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #100,660 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "posaient" and "posais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pesaient vs posaient". 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 #100,660 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.