Which to use
“quittaient” and “quittèrent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #40,947
- “quittaient” frequency rank
- #37,993
- “quittèrent” frequency rank
- 78940
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | quittaient | quittèrent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif du verbe quitter. | Troisième personne du pluriel du passé simple de quitter. |
Where the eye mixes quittaient and quittèrent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. quittaient (CVVCCVVVCC) and quittèrent (CVVCCVCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses quittaient with quittèrent
A purely visual mix-up. quittaient (\ki.tɛ\) and quittèrent (\ki.tɛʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78940, 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\. quittèrent is at rank #37,993, tagged as averb, pronounced \ki.tɛʁ\.
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 78940, this pair ranks #24,460 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of quittaient vs quittèrent
Shared letters: einqtu. Private to "quittaient": a. Private to "quittèrent": rè.
"quittaient" · 10 letters · shape CVVCCVVVCC · "quittèrent" · 10 letters · shape CVVCCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- quittaient ← qiuttaient · qquittaient · quitaient · quitatient · quittaeint · quittaiennt · quittaientt · quittaietn
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "quittaient" for "quittèrent" ever safe?
Frequency check: "quittaient" vs "quittèrent" - which ranks higher?
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 "quittèrent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #24,460 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "quittaient" and "quittèrent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "quittèrent vs quitteront". 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 #24,460 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.