Which to use
“recevais” and “recevait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #36,559
- “recevais” frequency rank
- #13,892
- “recevait” frequency rank
- 50451
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | recevais | recevait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de recevoir. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de recevoir. |
Where the eye mixes recevais and recevait
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. recevais and recevait follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: recevais vs recevait
A purely visual mix-up. recevais (\ʁə.sə.vɛ\) and recevait (\ʁə.s(ə.)vɛ\) 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 a single letter - s in “recevais” becomes t in “recevait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50451, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
recevais is recorded at frequency rank #36,559, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.sə.vɛ\. recevait is at rank #13,892, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.s(ə.)vɛ\.
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 50451, this pair ranks #162,512 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of recevais vs recevait
Shared letters: aceirv. Private to "recevais": s. Private to "recevait": t.
"recevais" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC · "recevait" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "recevais" and "recevait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "recevais" or "recevait" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "recevais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "recevait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #162,512 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "recevais" and "recevait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recevais vs recevras". 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 #162,512 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.