Which to use
“travaillaient” and “travaillais” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,923
- “travaillaient” frequency rank
- #18,090
- “travaillais” frequency rank
- 32013
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | travaillaient | travaillais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de travailler. | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de travailler. |
Same sound, different letters: travaillaient vs travaillais
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 10 letters. travaillaient runs 13 letters (CCVCVVCCVVVCC) against travaillais's 11 (CCVCVVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: travaillaient vs travaillais
This is the hard kind. travaillaient and travaillais are pronounced identically (\tʁa.va.jɛ\) 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 32013, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
travaillaient is recorded at frequency rank #13,923, classified as averb, pronounced \tʁa.va.jɛ\. travaillais is at rank #18,090, 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 32013, this pair ranks #300,140 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of travaillaient vs travaillais
Shared letters: ailrtv. Private to "travaillaient": en. Private to "travaillais": s.
"travaillaient" · 13 letters · shape CCVCVVCCVVVCC · "travaillais" · 11 letters · shape CCVCVVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- travaillaient ← rtavaillaient · tarvaillaient · traavillaient · travailaient · travailalient · travaillaeint · travaillaiennt · travaillaientt
- travaillais ← rtavaillais · tarvaillais · traavillais · travailais · travailalis · travaillaiss · travaillasi · travaillias
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "travaillaient" and "travaillais" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "travaillaient" or "travaillais"?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "travaillaient" / "travaillais". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "travaillaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "travaillais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #300,140 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "travaillaient" and "travaillais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "travailla vs travaillais". 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 #300,140 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.