quittentvsquitterWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#9,228
“quittent” frequency rank
#1,538
“quitter” frequency rank
10766
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature quittent quitter
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif du verbe quitter. Laisser quelqu’un quelque part ; se séparer de lui.

Where the eye mixes quittent and quitter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. quittent runs 8 letters (CVVCCVCC) against quitter's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
quittent
7 ch
quitter

Visual trap between quittent and quitter

A purely visual mix-up. quittent (\kit\) and quitter (\ki.te\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10766, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

quittent is recorded at frequency rank #9,228, classified as averb, pronounced \kit\. quitter is at rank #1,538, tagged as averb, pronounced \ki.te\.

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 10766, this pair ranks #411,726 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of quittent vs quitter

Shared letters: eiqtu. Private to "quittent": n. Private to "quitter": r.

"quittent" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC  ·  "quitter" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • quittent ← qiuttent · qquittent · quitent · quitetnt · quittennt · quittentt · quittetn · quittnet
  • quitter ← qiutter · qquitter · quiter · quitetr · quitterr · quittre · qutiter · uqitter

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "quittent" for "quitter" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kit\ versus \ki.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "quittent" or "quitter"?
"quitter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,538 in our French list, against #9,228 for "quittent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "quittent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "quitter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #411,726 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "quittent" and "quitter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "quittent 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 #411,726 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