réveillaitvsrévélaitWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#47,028
“réveillait” frequency rank
#25,804
“révélait” frequency rank
72832
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature réveillait révélait
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de réveiller. Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de révéler.

Where the eye mixes réveillait and révélait

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. réveillait runs 10 letters (CVCVVCCVVC) against révélait's 8 (CVCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
réveillait
8 ch
révélait

Why the eye confuses réveillait with révélait

A purely visual mix-up. réveillait (\ʁe.vɛ.jɛ\) and révélait (\ʁe.ve.lɛ\) 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 72832, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

réveillait is recorded at frequency rank #47,028, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁe.vɛ.jɛ\. révélait is at rank #25,804, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁe.ve.lɛ\.

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 72832, this pair ranks #42,606 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of réveillait vs révélait

Shared letters: ailrtvé. Private to "réveillait": e. Private to "révélait": -.

"réveillait" · 10 letters · shape CVCVVCCVVC  ·  "révélait" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "réveillait" and "révélait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʁe.vɛ.jɛ\ versus \ʁe.ve.lɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "réveillait" or "révélait" show up more?
"révélait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,804 in our French list, against #47,028 for "réveillait". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "réveillait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "révélait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #42,606 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "réveillait" and "révélait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "réveilla vs réveillait". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #42,606 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