risquaientvsrisquaitWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#38,515
“risquaient” frequency rank
#17,552
“risquait” frequency rank
56067
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature risquaient risquait
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de risquer. Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de risquer.

Same sound, different letters: risquaient vs risquait

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters.

10 ch
risquaient
8 ch
risquait

Ear matches; page differs - risquaient and risquait

This is the hard kind. risquaient and risquait are pronounced identically (\ʁis.kɛ\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56067, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

risquaient is recorded at frequency rank #38,515, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁis.kɛ\. risquait is at rank #17,552, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁis.kɛ\.

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 56067, this pair ranks #123,430 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of risquaient vs risquait

Shared letters: aiqrstu. Private to "risquaient": en. Private to "risquait": -.

"risquaient" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVVVVCC  ·  "risquait" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • risquaientirsquaient · riqsuaient · risqauient · risqquaient · risquaeint · risquaiennt · risquaientt · risquaietn
  • risquaitirsquait · riqsuait · risqauit · risqquait · risquaitt · risquati · risquiat · rissquait

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "risquaient" for "risquait" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ʁis.kɛ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "risquaient" or "risquait"?
"risquait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,552 in our French list, against #38,515 for "risquaient". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "risquaient" / "risquait". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "risquaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "risquait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #123,430 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "risquaient" and "risquait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "risquaient vs risqueraient". 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 #123,430 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