Which to use
“travaillais” and “travaillons” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,090
- “travaillais” frequency rank
- #12,077
- “travaillons” frequency rank
- 30167
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | travaillais | travaillons |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de travailler. | Première personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de travailler. |
Where the eye mixes travaillais and travaillons
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. travaillais (CCVCVVCCVVC) and travaillons (CCVCVVCCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: travaillais vs travaillons
A purely visual mix-up. travaillais (\tʁa.va.jɛ\) and travaillons (\tʁa.va.jɔ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30167, 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\. travaillons is at rank #12,077, tagged as averb, pronounced \tʁa.va.jɔ̃\.
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 30167, this pair ranks #312,077 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of travaillais vs travaillons
Shared letters: ailrstv. Private to "travaillais": -. Private to "travaillons": no.
"travaillais" · 11 letters · shape CCVCVVCCVVC · "travaillons" · 11 letters · shape CCVCVVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- travaillais ← rtavaillais · tarvaillais · traavillais · travailais · travailalis · travaillaiss · travaillasi · travaillias
- travaillons ← rtavaillons · tarvaillons · traavillons · travaillnos · travaillonns · travaillonss · travaillosn · travailolns
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "travaillais" and "travaillons" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "travaillais" or "travaillons" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "travaillais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "travaillons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #312,077 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "travaillais" and "travaillons" 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 #312,077 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.