Which to use
“surveillent” and “surveiller” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,042
- “surveillent” frequency rank
- #4,809
- “surveiller” frequency rank
- 27851
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | surveillent | surveiller |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de surveiller. | Observer avec attention ; examiner ; contrôler. |
Where the eye mixes surveillent and surveiller
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. surveillent runs 11 letters (CVCCVVCCVCC) against surveiller's 10 (CVCCVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between surveillent and surveiller
A purely visual mix-up. surveillent (\syʁ.vɛj\) and surveiller (\syʁ.vɛ.je\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27851, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
surveillent is recorded at frequency rank #23,042, classified as averb, pronounced \syʁ.vɛj\. surveiller is at rank #4,809, tagged as averb, pronounced \syʁ.vɛ.je\.
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 27851, this pair ranks #326,384 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of surveillent vs surveiller
Shared letters: eilrsuv. Private to "surveillent": nt. Private to "surveiller": -.
"surveillent" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVVCCVCC · "surveiller" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- surveillent ← sruveillent · ssurveillent · surevillent · surrveillent · surveilelnt · surveilent · surveillennt · surveillentt
- surveiller ← sruveiller · ssurveiller · sureviller · surrveiller · surveilelr · surveiler · surveillerr · surveillre
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "surveillent" and "surveiller" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "surveillent" or "surveiller"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "surveillent" and "surveiller" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "surveillent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "surveiller" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #326,384 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "surveillent" and "surveiller" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "surveillante vs surveillent". 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 #326,384 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.