IIIevsimeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#17,973
“IIIe” frequency rank
#49,145
“ime” frequency rank
67118
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature IIIe ime
Definition Troisième. Ma, mon.

Where the eye mixes IIIe and ime

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. IIIe runs 4 letters (VVVV) against ime's 3 (VCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
IIIe
3 ch
ime

Why the eye confuses IIIe with ime

A purely visual mix-up. IIIe (\tʁwa.zjɛm\) and ime (\ˈi.me\) 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 67118, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

IIIe is recorded at frequency rank #17,973, classified as anadj, pronounced \tʁwa.zjɛm\. ime is at rank #49,145, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ˈi.me\.

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 67118, this pair ranks #64,817 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of IIIe vs ime

Shared letters: ei. Private to "IIIe": -. Private to "ime": m.

"IIIe" · 4 letters · shape VVVV  ·  "ime" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Known mistypes of this pair

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "IIIe" and "ime" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\tʁwa.zjɛm\ versus \ˈi.me\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "IIIe" or "ime"?
"IIIe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,973 in our French list, against #49,145 for "ime". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "IIIe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ime" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #64,817 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "IIIe" and "ime" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ime vs isi". 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 #64,817 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