Which to use
“refusaient” and “refusait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,668
- “refusaient” frequency rank
- #12,851
- “refusait” frequency rank
- 36519
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | refusaient | refusait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de refuser. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de refuser. |
Same sound, different letters: refusaient vs refusait
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters.
Same sound, different spelling - refusaient / refusait
This is the hard kind. refusaient and refusait are pronounced identically (\ʁə.fy.zɛ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36519, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
refusaient is recorded at frequency rank #23,668, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fy.zɛ\. refusait is at rank #12,851, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fy.zɛ\.
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 36519, this pair ranks #269,027 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of refusaient vs refusait
Shared letters: aefirstu. Private to "refusaient": n. Private to "refusait": -.
"refusaient" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVVVCC · "refusait" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- refusaient ← erfusaient · reffusaient · refsuaient · refuasient · refusaeint · refusaiennt · refusaientt · refusaietn
- refusait ← erfusait · reffusait · refsuait · refuasit · refusaitt · refusati · refusiat · refussait
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "refusaient" and "refusait" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "refusaient" or "refusait"?
Useful next steps
"refusaient" and "refusait" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "refusaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "refusait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #269,027 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "refusaient" and "refusait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "refusaient vs refuseraient". 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 #269,027 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.