Which to use
“suivais” and “suivait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #25,142
- “suivais” frequency rank
- #12,071
- “suivait” frequency rank
- 37213
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | suivais | suivait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait du verbe suivre. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait du verbe suivre. |
Same sound, different letters: suivais vs suivait
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. suivais and suivait follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Ear matches; page differs - suivais and suivait
This is the hard kind. suivais and suivait 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 a single letter - s in “suivais” becomes t in “suivait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37213, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
suivais is recorded at frequency rank #25,142, classified as averb, pronounced \sɥi.vɛ\. suivait is at rank #12,071, 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 37213, this pair ranks #264,076 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of suivais vs suivait
Shared letters: aisuv. Private to "suivais": -. Private to "suivait": t.
"suivais" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC · "suivait" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "suivais" and "suivait" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "suivais" vs "suivait" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "suivais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "suivait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #264,076 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "suivais" and "suivait" 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 #264,076 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.