Which to use
“sortais” and “sortait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,857
- “sortais” frequency rank
- #8,040
- “sortait” frequency rank
- 28897
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sortais | sortait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de sortir. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de sortir. |
Same sound, different letters: sortais vs sortait
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.
Same sound, different spelling - sortais / sortait
This is the hard kind. sortais and sortait are pronounced identically (\sɔʁ.tɛ\) 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 a single letter - s in “sortais” becomes t in “sortait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28897, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sortais is recorded at frequency rank #20,857, classified as averb, pronounced \sɔʁ.tɛ\. sortait is at rank #8,040, tagged as averb, pronounced \sɔʁ.tɛ\.
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 28897, this pair ranks #319,965 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sortais vs sortait
Shared letters: aiorst. Private to "sortais": -. Private to "sortait": -.
"sortais" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "sortait" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sortais" and "sortait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "sortais" or "sortait"?
Useful next steps
"sortais" and "sortait" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "sortais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sortait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #319,965 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sortais" and "sortait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sortais vs sortirais". 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 #319,965 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.