Which to use
“travaillaient” and “travaillent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,923
- “travaillaient” frequency rank
- #3,424
- “travaillent” frequency rank
- 17347
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | travaillaient | travaillent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de travailler. | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de travailler. |
Where the eye mixes travaillaient and travaillent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 11 letters in sequence. travaillaient runs 13 letters (CCVCVVCCVVVCC) against travaillent's 11 (CCVCVVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between travaillaient and travaillent
A purely visual mix-up. travaillaient (\tʁa.va.jɛ\) and travaillent (\tʁa.vaj\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17347, 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\. travaillent is at rank #3,424, tagged as averb, pronounced \tʁa.vaj\.
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 17347, this pair ranks #383,631 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of travaillaient vs travaillent
Shared letters: aeilnrtv. Private to "travaillaient": -. Private to "travaillent": -.
"travaillaient" · 13 letters · shape CCVCVVCCVVVCC · "travaillent" · 11 letters · shape CCVCVVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- travaillaient ← rtavaillaient · tarvaillaient · traavillaient · travailaient · travailalient · travaillaeint · travaillaiennt · travaillaientt
- travaillent ← rtavaillent · tarvaillent · traavillent · travailelnt · travailent · travaillennt · travaillentt · travailletn
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "travaillaient" for "travaillent" ever safe?
Which is more common, "travaillaient" or "travaillent"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "travaillaient" and "travaillent" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "travaillaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "travaillent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #383,631 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "travaillaient" and "travaillent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "travaillent vs travailleront". 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 #383,631 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.