votantvsvoyaitTell them apart

Quick tell: votant is a adjective, voyait is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“votant” is an adjective and “voyait” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,455
“votant” frequency rank
#4,634
“voyait” frequency rank
27089
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature votant voyait
Definition Qui vote. Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de voir.

Where the eye mixes votant and voyait

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. votant (CVCVCC) and voyait (CVVVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
votant
6 ch
voyait

Visual trap between votant and voyait

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: votant is \vɔ.tɑ̃\ while voyait is \vwa.jɛ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27089, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

votant is recorded at frequency rank #22,455, classified as anadj, pronounced \vɔ.tɑ̃\. voyait is at rank #4,634, tagged as averb, pronounced \vwa.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 27089, this pair ranks #331,146 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of votant vs voyait

Shared letters: aotv. Private to "votant": n. Private to "voyait": iy.

"votant" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "voyait" · 6 letters · shape CVVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • votant ← ovtant · voatnt · votannt · votantt · votatn · votnat · vottant · vtoant
  • voyait ← ovyait · voayit · voyaitt · voyati · voyiat · voyyait · vvoyait · vyoait

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "votant" for "voyait" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "votant" is an adjective and "voyait" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "votant" vs "voyait" - which ranks higher?
"voyait" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,634 in our French list, against #22,455 for "votant". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "votant" and "voyait" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "votant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "voyait" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #331,146 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "votant" and "voyait" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "votaient vs votant". 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 #331,146 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