Which to use
“wear” and “went” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,332
- “wear” frequency rank
- #46,529
- “went” frequency rank
- 81861
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | wear | went |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Porter (un vêtement). | Prétérit de go. |
Where the eye mixes wear and went
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. wear (CVVC) and went (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses wear with went
A purely visual mix-up. wear (\wɛə\) and went (\ˈwɛnt\) 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 81861, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
wear is recorded at frequency rank #35,332, classified as averb, pronounced \wɛə\. went is at rank #46,529, tagged as averb, pronounced \ˈwɛnt\.
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 81861, this pair ranks #17,903 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of wear vs went
Shared letters: ew. Private to "wear": ar. Private to "went": nt.
"wear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "went" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "wear" for "went" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "wear" or "went" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "wear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "went" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #17,903 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "wear" and "went" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "went vs wren". 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 #17,903 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.