refusaientvsrefuseraientConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#23,668
“refusaient” frequency rank
#49,900
“refuseraient” frequency rank
73568
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature refusaient refuseraient
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de refuser. Troisième personne du pluriel du conditionnel présent de refuser.

Where the eye mixes refusaient and refuseraient

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence.

10 ch
refusaient
12 ch
refuseraient

Why the eye confuses refusaient with refuseraient

A purely visual mix-up. refusaient (\ʁə.fy.zɛ\) and refuseraient (\ʁə.fy.zə.ʁɛ\) 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 73568, 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\. refuseraient is at rank #49,900, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fy.zə.ʁɛ\.

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 73568, this pair ranks #40,011 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of refusaient vs refuseraient

Shared letters: aefinrstu. Private to "refusaient": -. Private to "refuseraient": -.

"refusaient" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVVVCC  ·  "refuseraient" · 12 letters · shape CVCVCVCVVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • refusaienterfusaient · reffusaient · refsuaient · refuasient · refusaeint · refusaiennt · refusaientt · refusaietn
  • refuseraienterfuseraient · reffuseraient · refsueraient · refuesraient · refusearient · refuseraeint · refuseraiennt · refuseraientt

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "refusaient" and "refuseraient" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.fy.zɛ\ versus \ʁə.fy.zə.ʁɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "refusaient" vs "refuseraient" - which ranks higher?
"refusaient" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,668 in our French list, against #49,900 for "refuseraient". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "refusaient" and "refuseraient" 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 "refuseraient" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,011 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "refusaient" and "refuseraient" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "refuseraient vs refusèrent". 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 #40,011 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