Which to use
“posais” and “posait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #26,477
- “posais” frequency rank
- #13,663
- “posait” frequency rank
- 40140
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | posais | posait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de poser. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de poser. |
Same sound, different letters: posais vs posait
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. posais and posait follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Same sound, different spelling - posais / posait
This is the hard kind. posais and posait 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 a single letter - s in “posais” becomes t in “posait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40140, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
posais is recorded at frequency rank #26,477, classified as averb, pronounced \po.zɛ\. posait is at rank #13,663, 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 40140, this pair ranks #242,735 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of posais vs posait
Shared letters: aiops. Private to "posais": -. Private to "posait": t.
"posais" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "posait" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "posais" and "posait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "posais" or "posait"?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "posais" / "posait". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "posais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "posait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #242,735 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "posais" and "posait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Polaris vs posais". 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 #242,735 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.