Which to use
“suivaient” and “suivais” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #22,107
- “suivaient” frequency rank
- #25,142
- “suivais” frequency rank
- 47249
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | suivaient | suivais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait du verbe suivre. | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait du verbe suivre. |
Same sound, different letters: suivaient vs suivais
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. suivaient runs 9 letters (CVVCVVVCC) against suivais's 7 (CVVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - suivaient and suivais
This is the hard kind. suivaient and suivais are pronounced identically (\sɥi.vɛ\) 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 47249, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
suivaient is recorded at frequency rank #22,107, classified as averb, pronounced \sɥi.vɛ\. suivais is at rank #25,142, tagged as averb, pronounced \sɥi.vɛ\.
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 47249, this pair ranks #188,393 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of suivaient vs suivais
Shared letters: aisuv. Private to "suivaient": ent. Private to "suivais": -.
"suivaient" · 9 letters · shape CVVCVVVCC · "suivais" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "suivaient" for "suivais" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "suivaient" or "suivais" show up more?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "suivaient" / "suivais". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "suivaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "suivais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #188,393 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "suivaient" and "suivais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "suivais vs suivrai". 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 #188,393 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.