venaisvsvendaitTell them apart

Which to use

“venais” and “vendait” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#11,149
“venais” frequency rank
#16,769
“vendait” frequency rank
27918
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature venais vendait
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait du verbe venir. Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de vendre.

Where the eye mixes venais and vendait

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. venais runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against vendait's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
venais
7 ch
vendait

Why the eye confuses venais with vendait

A purely visual mix-up. venais (\və.nɛ\) and vendait (\vɑ̃.dɛ\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27918, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

venais is recorded at frequency rank #11,149, classified as averb, pronounced \və.nɛ\. vendait is at rank #16,769, tagged as averb, pronounced \vɑ̃.dɛ\.

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 27918, this pair ranks #325,965 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of venais vs vendait

Shared letters: aeinv. Private to "venais": s. Private to "vendait": dt.

"venais" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "vendait" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • venaisevnais · veanis · venaiss · venasi · venias · vennais · vneais · vvenais
  • vendaitevndait · vednait · venadit · vendaitt · vendati · venddait · vendiat · venndait

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "venais" and "vendait" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\və.nɛ\ versus \vɑ̃.dɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "venais" or "vendait"?
"venais" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,149 in our French list, against #16,769 for "vendait". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "venais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vendait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #325,965 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "venais" and "vendait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vendait vs vendrait". 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 #325,965 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list