Which to use
“voyaient” and “voyais” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,178
- “voyaient” frequency rank
- #6,354
- “voyais” frequency rank
- 20532
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | voyaient | voyais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’imparfait de voir. | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de voir. |
Same sound, different letters: voyaient vs voyais
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. voyaient runs 8 letters (CVVVVVCC) against voyais's 6 (CVVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - voyaient / voyais
This is the hard kind. voyaient and voyais are pronounced identically (\vwa.jɛ\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20532, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
voyaient is recorded at frequency rank #14,178, classified as averb, pronounced \vwa.jɛ\. voyais is at rank #6,354, 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 20532, this pair ranks #367,799 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of voyaient vs voyais
Shared letters: aiovy. Private to "voyaient": ent. Private to "voyais": s.
"voyaient" · 8 letters · shape CVVVVVCC · "voyais" · 6 letters · shape CVVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "voyaient" and "voyais" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "voyaient" or "voyais" show up more?
Useful next steps
"voyaient" and "voyais" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "voyaient" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "voyais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #367,799 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "voyaient" and "voyais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "votaient vs voyaient". 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 #367,799 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.