Which to use
“travaillaient” and “travaillait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,923
- “travaillaient” frequency rank
- #7,010
- “travaillait” frequency rank
- 20933
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | travaillaient | travaillait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de travailler. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de travailler. |
Same sound, different letters: travaillaient vs travaillait
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 11 letters. travaillaient runs 13 letters (CCVCVVCCVVVCC) against travaillait's 11 (CCVCVVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - travaillaient and travaillait
This is the hard kind. travaillaient and travaillait 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 20933, 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\. 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 20933, this pair ranks #365,725 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of travaillaient vs travaillait
Shared letters: ailrtv. Private to "travaillaient": en. Private to "travaillait": -.
"travaillaient" · 13 letters · shape CCVCVVCCVVVCC · "travaillait" · 11 letters · shape CCVCVVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- travaillaient ← rtavaillaient · tarvaillaient · traavillaient · travailaient · travailalient · travaillaeint · travaillaiennt · travaillaientt
- travaillait ← rtavaillait · tarvaillait · traavillait · travailait · travailalit · travaillaitt · travaillati · travailliat
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "travaillaient" and "travaillait" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "travaillaient" vs "travaillait" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "travaillaient" / "travaillait". 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 "travaillait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #365,725 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "travaillaient" and "travaillait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "travaillait vs travaillerait". 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 #365,725 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.