Which to use
“racontais” and “racontait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,557
- “racontais” frequency rank
- #14,342
- “racontait” frequency rank
- 56899
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | racontais | racontait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de raconter. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de raconter. |
Same sound, different letters: racontais vs racontait
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. racontais and racontait follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Ear matches; page differs - racontais and racontait
This is the hard kind. racontais and racontait are pronounced identically (\ʁa.kɔ̃.tɛ\) 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 “racontais” becomes t in “racontait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56899, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
racontais is recorded at frequency rank #42,557, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁa.kɔ̃.tɛ\. racontait is at rank #14,342, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁa.kɔ̃.tɛ\.
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 56899, this pair ranks #118,255 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of racontais vs racontait
Shared letters: acinort. Private to "racontais": s. Private to "racontait": -.
"racontais" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVVC · "racontait" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "racontais" and "racontait" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "racontais" vs "racontait" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "racontais" / "racontait". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "racontais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "racontait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #118,255 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "racontais" and "racontait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "racontais vs racontés". 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 #118,255 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.