Which to use
“refusait” and “refusant” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #12,851
- “refusait” frequency rank
- #9,231
- “refusant” frequency rank
- 22082
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | refusait | refusant |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de refuser. | Participe présent de refuser. |
Where the eye mixes refusait and refusant
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between refusait and refusant
A purely visual mix-up. refusait (\ʁə.fy.zɛ\) and refusant (\ʁə.fy.zɑ̃\) 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 - i in “refusait” becomes n in “refusant”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22082, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
refusait is recorded at frequency rank #12,851, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fy.zɛ\. refusant is at rank #9,231, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fy.zɑ̃\.
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 22082, this pair ranks #359,889 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of refusait vs refusant
Shared letters: aefrstu. Private to "refusait": i. Private to "refusant": n.
"refusait" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC · "refusant" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "refusait" and "refusant" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "refusait" vs "refusant" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "refusait" and "refusant" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "refusait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "refusant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #359,889 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "refusait" and "refusant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "réduisait vs refusait". 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 #359,889 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.