Which to use
“suivait” is a verb and “suivant” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #12,071
- “suivait” frequency rank
- #1,075
- “suivant” frequency rank
- 13146
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | suivait | suivant |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait du verbe suivre. | Qui est après, qui vient après. |
Where the eye mixes suivait and suivant
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. suivait (CVVCVVC) and suivant (CVVCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between suivait and suivant
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: suivait is \sɥi.vɛ\ while suivant is \sɥi.vɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - i in “suivait” becomes n in “suivant”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13146, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
suivait is recorded at frequency rank #12,071, classified as averb, pronounced \sɥi.vɛ\. suivant is at rank #1,075, tagged as anadj, pronounced \sɥi.vɑ̃\.
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 13146, this pair ranks #402,234 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of suivait vs suivant
Shared letters: aistuv. Private to "suivait": -. Private to "suivant": n.
"suivait" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC · "suivant" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "suivait" for "suivant" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "suivait" or "suivant" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "suivait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "suivant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #402,234 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "suivait" and "suivant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "suivait 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 #402,234 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.