subissaientvssubissaitWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#48,213
“subissaient” frequency rank
#36,604
“subissait” frequency rank
84817
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature subissaient subissait
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif imparfait de subir. Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait de subir.

Same sound, different letters: subissaient vs subissait

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. subissaient runs 11 letters (CVCVCCVVVCC) against subissait's 9 (CVCVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

11 ch
subissaient
9 ch
subissait

Same sound, different spelling - subissaient / subissait

This is the hard kind. subissaient and subissait are pronounced identically (\sy.bi.sɛ\) 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 84817, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

subissaient is recorded at frequency rank #48,213, classified as averb, pronounced \sy.bi.sɛ\. subissait is at rank #36,604, tagged as averb, pronounced \sy.bi.sɛ\.

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 84817, this pair ranks #12,326 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of subissaient vs subissait

Shared letters: abistu. Private to "subissaient": en. Private to "subissait": -.

"subissaient" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCCVVVCC  ·  "subissait" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • subissaient ← sbuissaient · ssubissaient · subbissaient · subisaient · subisasient · subissaeint · subissaiennt · subissaientt
  • subissait ← sbuissait · ssubissait · subbissait · subisait · subisasit · subissaitt · subissati · subissiat

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "subissaient" and "subissait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\sy.bi.sɛ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "subissaient" or "subissait" show up more?
"subissait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,604 in our French list, against #48,213 for "subissaient". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "subissaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "subissait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #12,326 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "subissaient" and "subissait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "subissaient vs subissant". 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 #12,326 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