recevaientvsrecevantWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#25,468
“recevaient” frequency rank
#12,036
“recevant” frequency rank
37504
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature recevaient recevant
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de recevoir. Participe présent de recevoir.

Where the eye mixes recevaient and recevant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

10 ch
recevaient
8 ch
recevant

Why the eye confuses recevaient with recevant

A purely visual mix-up. recevaient (\ʁə.sə.vɛ\) and recevant (\ʁə.sə.vɑ̃\) 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 37504, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

recevaient is recorded at frequency rank #25,468, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.sə.vɛ\. recevant is at rank #12,036, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.sə.vɑ̃\.

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 37504, this pair ranks #262,057 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of recevaient vs recevant

Shared letters: acenrtv. Private to "recevaient": i. Private to "recevant": -.

"recevaient" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVVVCC  ·  "recevant" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • recevaientercevaient · rceevaient · reccevaient · receavient · recevaeint · recevaiennt · recevaientt · recevaietn
  • recevantercevant · rceevant · reccevant · receavnt · recevannt · recevantt · recevatn · recevnat

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "recevaient" and "recevant" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.sə.vɛ\ versus \ʁə.sə.vɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "recevaient" vs "recevant" - which ranks higher?
"recevant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,036 in our French list, against #25,468 for "recevaient". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "recevaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "recevant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #262,057 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "recevaient" and "recevant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recevaient vs rêvaient". 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 #262,057 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