quittaientvsquittantWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#40,947
“quittaient” frequency rank
#13,889
“quittant” frequency rank
54836
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature quittaient quittant
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif du verbe quitter. Participe présent de quitter.

Where the eye mixes quittaient and quittant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. quittaient runs 10 letters (CVVCCVVVCC) against quittant's 8 (CVVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
quittaient
8 ch
quittant

Visual trap between quittaient and quittant

A purely visual mix-up. quittaient (\ki.tɛ\) and quittant (\ki.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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54836, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

quittaient is recorded at frequency rank #40,947, classified as averb, pronounced \ki.tɛ\. quittant is at rank #13,889, tagged as averb, pronounced \ki.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 54836, this pair ranks #131,359 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of quittaient vs quittant

Shared letters: ainqtu. Private to "quittaient": e. Private to "quittant": -.

"quittaient" · 10 letters · shape CVVCCVVVCC  ·  "quittant" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • quittaient ← qiuttaient · qquittaient · quitaient · quitatient · quittaeint · quittaiennt · quittaientt · quittaietn
  • quittant ← qiuttant · qquittant · quitant · quitatnt · quittannt · quittantt · quittatn · quittnat

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "quittaient" and "quittant" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ki.tɛ\ versus \ki.tɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "quittaient" or "quittant"?
"quittant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,889 in our French list, against #40,947 for "quittaient". 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 "quittaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "quittant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #131,359 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "quittaient" and "quittant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "quittaient vs quittèrent". 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 #131,359 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