Which to use
“veillait” and “veillent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #47,674
- “veillait” frequency rank
- #26,572
- “veillent” frequency rank
- 74246
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | veillait | veillent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de veiller. | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de veiller. |
Where the eye mixes veillait and veillent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. veillait (CVVCCVVC) and veillent (CVVCCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between veillait and veillent
A purely visual mix-up. veillait (\ve.jɛ\) and veillent (\vɛj\) 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 74246, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
veillait is recorded at frequency rank #47,674, classified as averb, pronounced \ve.jɛ\. veillent is at rank #26,572, tagged as averb, pronounced \vɛj\.
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 74246, this pair ranks #37,743 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of veillait vs veillent
Shared letters: eiltv. Private to "veillait": a. Private to "veillent": n.
"veillait" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC · "veillent" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "veillait" and "veillent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "veillait" or "veillent"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "veillait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "veillent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #37,743 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "veillait" and "veillent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "veillait vs violait". 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 #37,743 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.