Which to use
“tombais” and “tombait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,492
- “tombais” frequency rank
- #16,754
- “tombait” frequency rank
- 63246
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tombais | tombait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de tomber. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de tomber. |
Same sound, different letters: tombais vs tombait
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. tombais and tombait follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Homophone desk: tombais vs tombait
This is the hard kind. tombais and tombait 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 a single letter - s in “tombais” becomes t in “tombait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63246, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tombais is recorded at frequency rank #46,492, classified as averb, pronounced \tɔ̃.bɛ\. tombait is at rank #16,754, 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 63246, this pair ranks #82,968 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tombais vs tombait
Shared letters: abimot. Private to "tombais": s. Private to "tombait": -.
"tombais" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "tombait" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "tombais" and "tombait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "tombais" vs "tombait" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
"tombais" and "tombait" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "tombais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tombait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #82,968 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tombais" and "tombait" 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 #82,968 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.