Which to use
“refusaient” and “refusent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,668
- “refusaient” frequency rank
- #5,915
- “refusent” frequency rank
- 29583
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | refusaient | refusent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de refuser. | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de refuser. |
Where the eye mixes refusaient and refusent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses refusaient with refusent
A purely visual mix-up. refusaient (\ʁə.fy.zɛ\) and refusent (\ʁə.fyz\) 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 29583, 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\. refusent is at rank #5,915, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fyz\.
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 29583, this pair ranks #315,746 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of refusaient vs refusent
Shared letters: efnrstu. Private to "refusaient": ai. Private to "refusent": -.
"refusaient" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVVVCC · "refusent" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- refusaient ← erfusaient · reffusaient · refsuaient · refuasient · refusaeint · refusaiennt · refusaientt · refusaietn
- refusent ← erfusent · reffusent · refsuent · refuesnt · refusennt · refusentt · refusetn · refusnet
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "refusaient" for "refusent" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "refusaient" or "refusent" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "refusaient" and "refusent" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "refusaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "refusent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #315,746 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "refusaient" and "refusent" 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 #315,746 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.