Which to use
“tombaient” and “tombais” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,006
- “tombaient” frequency rank
- #46,492
- “tombais” frequency rank
- 76498
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tombaient | tombais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de tomber. | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de tomber. |
Same sound, different letters: tombaient vs tombais
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. tombaient runs 9 letters (CVCCVVVCC) against tombais's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: tombaient vs tombais
This is the hard kind. tombaient and tombais are pronounced identically (\tɔ̃.bɛ\) 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 76498, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tombaient is recorded at frequency rank #30,006, classified as averb, pronounced \tɔ̃.bɛ\. tombais is at rank #46,492, tagged as averb, pronounced \tɔ̃.bɛ\.
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 76498, this pair ranks #30,968 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tombaient vs tombais
Shared letters: abimot. Private to "tombaient": en. Private to "tombais": s.
"tombaient" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVVCC · "tombais" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tombaient" for "tombais" ever safe?
Frequency check: "tombaient" vs "tombais" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
You've separated the homophone pair "tombaient" / "tombais". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "tombaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tombais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #30,968 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tombaient" and "tombais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tombais vs tombons". 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 #30,968 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.