Which to use
“sortait” and “sortent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,040
- “sortait” frequency rank
- #3,803
- “sortent” frequency rank
- 11843
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sortait | sortent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de sortir. | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de sortir. |
Where the eye mixes sortait and sortent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses sortait with sortent
A purely visual mix-up. sortait (\sɔʁ.tɛ\) and sortent (\sɔʁt\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11843, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sortait is recorded at frequency rank #8,040, classified as averb, pronounced \sɔʁ.tɛ\. sortent is at rank #3,803, tagged as averb, pronounced \sɔʁt\.
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 11843, this pair ranks #407,610 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of sortait vs sortent
Shared letters: orst. Private to "sortait": ai. Private to "sortent": en.
"sortait" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "sortent" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sortait" and "sortent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "sortait" or "sortent"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "sortait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sortent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #407,610 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sortait" and "sortent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sortait vs surfait". 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 #407,610 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.