Which to use
“travailla” and “travaillait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,380
- “travailla” frequency rank
- #7,010
- “travaillait” frequency rank
- 35390
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | travailla | travaillait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de travailler. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de travailler. |
Where the eye mixes travailla and travaillait
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. travailla runs 9 letters (CCVCVVCCV) against travaillait's 11 (CCVCVVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses travailla with travaillait
A purely visual mix-up. travailla (\tʁa.va.ja\) and travaillait (\tʁa.va.jɛ\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “travailla” sits inside “travaillait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35390, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
travailla is recorded at frequency rank #28,380, classified as averb, pronounced \tʁa.va.ja\. travaillait is at rank #7,010, tagged as averb, pronounced \tʁa.va.jɛ\.
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 35390, this pair ranks #277,091 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of travailla vs travaillait
Shared letters: ailrtv. Private to "travailla": -. Private to "travaillait": -.
"travailla" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVVCCV · "travaillait" · 11 letters · shape CCVCVVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- travailla ← rtavailla · tarvailla · traavilla · travaila · travailal · travalila · travialla · travvailla
- travaillait ← rtavaillait · tarvaillait · traavillait · travailait · travailalit · travaillaitt · travaillati · travailliat
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "travailla" and "travaillait" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "travailla" or "travaillait" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "travailla" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "travaillait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #277,091 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "travailla" and "travaillait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "travailla vs travaillée". 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 #277,091 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.