renvoyaitvsrenvoyantConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#47,567
“renvoyait” frequency rank
#23,671
“renvoyant” frequency rank
71238
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature renvoyait renvoyant
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de renvoyer. Participe présent de renvoyer.

Where the eye mixes renvoyait and renvoyant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. renvoyait (CVCCVVVVC) and renvoyant (CVCCVVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

9 ch
renvoyait
9 ch
renvoyant

Visual trap between renvoyait and renvoyant

A purely visual mix-up. renvoyait (\ʁɑ̃.vwa.jɛ\) and renvoyant (\ʁɑ̃.vwa.jɑ̃\) 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 “renvoyait” becomes n in “renvoyant”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71238, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

renvoyait is recorded at frequency rank #47,567, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁɑ̃.vwa.jɛ\. renvoyant is at rank #23,671, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁɑ̃.vwa.jɑ̃\.

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 71238, this pair ranks #48,314 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of renvoyait vs renvoyant

Shared letters: aenortvy. Private to "renvoyait": i. Private to "renvoyant": -.

"renvoyait" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVVVC  ·  "renvoyant" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • renvoyait ← ernvoyait · rennvoyait · renovyait · renvoayit · renvoyaitt · renvoyati · renvoyiat · renvoyyait
  • renvoyant ← ernvoyant · rennvoyant · renovyant · renvoaynt · renvoyannt · renvoyantt · renvoyatn · renvoynat

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "renvoyait" and "renvoyant" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʁɑ̃.vwa.jɛ\ versus \ʁɑ̃.vwa.jɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "renvoyait" or "renvoyant" show up more?
"renvoyant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,671 in our French list, against #47,567 for "renvoyait". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "renvoyait" and "renvoyant" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "renvoyait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "renvoyant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #48,314 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "renvoyait" and "renvoyant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "renvoyait vs revoyant". 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 #48,314 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