ignoraisvsignorantsWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: ignorais is a verb, ignorants is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#19,312
“ignorais” frequency rank
#19,313
“ignorants” frequency rank
38625
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ignorais ignorants
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de ignorer. Masculin pluriel de ignorant.

Where the eye mixes ignorais and ignorants

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. ignorais runs 8 letters (VCCVCVVC) against ignorants's 9 (VCCVCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
ignorais
9 ch
ignorants

Look-alike desk: ignorais vs ignorants

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ignorais is \i.ɲɔ.ʁɛ\ while ignorants is \i.ɲɔ.ʁɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38625, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ignorais is recorded at frequency rank #19,312, classified as averb, pronounced \i.ɲɔ.ʁɛ\. ignorants is at rank #19,313, tagged as anadj, pronounced \i.ɲɔ.ʁɑ̃\.

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 38625, this pair ranks #253,961 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ignorais vs ignorants

Shared letters: aginors. Private to "ignorais": -. Private to "ignorants": t.

"ignorais" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVVC  ·  "ignorants" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ignorais ← ginorais · iggnorais · ignnorais · ignoaris · ignoraiss · ignorasi · ignorias · ignorrais
  • ignorants ← ginorants · iggnorants · ignnorants · ignoarnts · ignorannts · ignoranst · ignorantss · ignorantts

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ignorais" and "ignorants" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ignorais" is a verb and "ignorants" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ignorais" or "ignorants"?
"ignorais" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,312 in our French list, against #19,313 for "ignorants". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ignorais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ignorants" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #253,961 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ignorais" and "ignorants" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ignorants vs intrants". 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 #253,961 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