vivaitvsvivraisTell them apart

Which to use

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

#6,255
“vivait” frequency rank
#48,259
“vivrais” frequency rank
54514
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vivait vivrais
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de vivre. Première personne du singulier du conditionnel de vivre.

Where the eye mixes vivait and vivrais

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

6 ch
vivait
7 ch
vivrais

Look-alike desk: vivait vs vivrais

A purely visual mix-up. vivait (\vi.vɛ\) and vivrais (\vi.vʁɛ\) 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 54514, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vivait is recorded at frequency rank #6,255, classified as averb, pronounced \vi.vɛ\. vivrais is at rank #48,259, tagged as averb, pronounced \vi.vʁɛ\.

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 54514, this pair ranks #133,483 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vivait vs vivrais

Shared letters: aiv. Private to "vivait": t. Private to "vivrais": rs.

"vivait" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "vivrais" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vivait ← ivvait · viavit · vivaitt · vivati · viviat · vivvait · vviait · vvivait
  • vivrais ← ivvrais · virvais · vivaris · vivraiss · vivrasi · vivrias · vivrrais · vivvrais

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vivait" for "vivrais" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\vi.vɛ\ versus \vi.vʁɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "vivait" or "vivrais"?
"vivait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,255 in our French list, against #48,259 for "vivrais". 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 "vivait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vivrais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #133,483 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vivait" and "vivrais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vivrai vs vivrais". 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 #133,483 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