Which to use
“suivaient” and “suivent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #22,107
- “suivaient” frequency rank
- #3,042
- “suivent” frequency rank
- 25149
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | suivaient | suivent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait du verbe suivre. | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif du verbe suivre. |
Where the eye mixes suivaient and suivent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. suivaient runs 9 letters (CVVCVVVCC) against suivent's 7 (CVVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses suivaient with suivent
A purely visual mix-up. suivaient (\sɥi.vɛ\) and suivent (\sɥiv\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25149, 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\. suivent is at rank #3,042, tagged as averb, pronounced \sɥiv\.
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 25149, this pair ranks #342,513 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of suivaient vs suivent
Shared letters: einstuv. Private to "suivaient": a. Private to "suivent": -.
"suivaient" · 9 letters · shape CVVCVVVCC · "suivent" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "suivaient" for "suivent" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "suivaient" or "suivent" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "suivaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "suivent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #342,513 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "suivaient" and "suivent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sucent vs suivent". 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 #342,513 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.