rêvaientvsrevientWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: rêvaient is a verb, revient is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“rêvaient” is a verb and “revient” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,857
“rêvaient” frequency rank
#1,209
“revient” frequency rank
47066
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rêvaient revient
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de rêver. Ce à quoi un objet fabriqué revient (voir les dérivés pour les seuls usages possibles).

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set rêvaient and revient apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

8 ch
rêvaient
7 ch
revient

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rêvaient is \ʁɛ.vɛ\ while revient is \ʁə.vjɛ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47066, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rêvaient is recorded at frequency rank #45,857, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁɛ.vɛ\. revient is at rank #1,209, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.vjɛ̃\.

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 47066, this pair ranks #189,912 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of rêvaient vs revient

Shared letters: einrtv. Private to "rêvaient": . Private to "revient": -.

"rêvaient" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVVCC  ·  "revient" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • revientervient · reivent · reveint · reviennt · revientt · revietn · revinet · revvient

Frequency comparison

rêvaient#45,857
revient#1,209

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rêvaient" and "revient" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "rêvaient" is a verb and "revient" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "rêvaient" or "revient"?
"revient" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,209 in our French list, against #45,857 for "rêvaient". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering rêvaient vs revient

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “rêvaient”; for a noun, it's “revient”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “rêvaient” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list