Which to use
“travaillais” and “travaillait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,090
- “travaillais” frequency rank
- #7,010
- “travaillait” frequency rank
- 25100
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | travaillais | travaillait |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de travailler. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de travailler. |
Same sound, different letters: travaillais vs travaillait
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 10 letters. travaillais and travaillait follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVVCCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Same sound, different spelling - travaillais / travaillait
This is the hard kind. travaillais 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 a single letter - s in “travaillais” becomes t in “travaillait”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25100, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
travaillais is recorded at frequency rank #18,090, 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 25100, this pair ranks #342,813 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of travaillais vs travaillait
Shared letters: ailrtv. Private to "travaillais": s. Private to "travaillait": -.
"travaillais" · 11 letters · shape CCVCVVCCVVC · "travaillait" · 11 letters · shape CCVCVVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- travaillais ← rtavaillais · tarvaillais · traavillais · travailais · travailalis · travaillaiss · travaillasi · travaillias
- travaillait ← rtavaillait · tarvaillait · traavillait · travailait · travailalit · travaillaitt · travaillati · travailliat
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "travaillais" and "travaillait" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "travaillais" vs "travaillait" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "travaillais" 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 #342,813 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "travaillais" 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 #342,813 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.