îlotsvsimpôtsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#21,828
“îlots” frequency rank
#2,368
“impôts” frequency rank
24196
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature îlots impôts
Definition Pluriel de îlot. Pluriel de impôt.

Where the eye mixes îlots and impôts

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. îlots runs 5 letters (VCVCC) against impôts's 6 (VCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
îlots
6 ch
impôts

Why the eye confuses îlots with impôts

A purely visual mix-up. îlots (\i.lo\) and impôts (\ɛ̃.po\) 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 24196, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

îlots is recorded at frequency rank #21,828, classified as anoun, pronounced \i.lo\. impôts is at rank #2,368, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.po\.

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 24196, this pair ranks #347,996 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of îlots vs impôts

Shared letters: st. Private to "îlots": loî. Private to "impôts": impô.

"îlots" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC  ·  "impôts" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "îlots" and "impôts" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\i.lo\ versus \ɛ̃.po\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "îlots" vs "impôts" - which ranks higher?
"impôts" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,368 in our French list, against #21,828 for "îlots". 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 "îlots" and "impôts" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "îlots" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "impôts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #347,996 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "îlots" and "impôts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ilona vs îlots". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #347,996 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