Which to use
“regrettait” and “regrettant” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #29,939
- “regrettait” frequency rank
- #37,521
- “regrettant” frequency rank
- 67460
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | regrettait | regrettant |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de regretter. | Participe présent de regretter. |
Where the eye mixes regrettait and regrettant
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. regrettait (CVCCVCCVVC) and regrettant (CVCCVCCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses regrettait with regrettant
A purely visual mix-up. regrettait (\ʁə.ɡʁɛ.tɛ\) and regrettant (\ʁə.ɡʁɛ.tɑ̃\) 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 “regrettait” becomes n in “regrettant”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67460, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
regrettait is recorded at frequency rank #29,939, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.ɡʁɛ.tɛ\. regrettant is at rank #37,521, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.ɡʁɛ.tɑ̃\.
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 67460, this pair ranks #63,376 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of regrettait vs regrettant
Shared letters: aegrt. Private to "regrettait": i. Private to "regrettant": n.
"regrettait" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVVC · "regrettant" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- regrettait ← ergrettait · regerttait · reggrettait · regretait · regretatit · regrettaitt · regrettati · regrettiat
- regrettant ← ergrettant · regerttant · reggrettant · regretant · regretatnt · regrettannt · regrettantt · regrettatn
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "regrettait" and "regrettant" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "regrettait" vs "regrettant" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "regrettait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "regrettant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #63,376 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "regrettait" and "regrettant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "regrettant vs regrettons". 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 #63,376 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.