immortelsvsimportéesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#20,758
“immortels” frequency rank
#28,598
“importées” frequency rank
49356
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature immortels importées
Definition Masculin pluriel de l’adjectif immortel. Féminin pluriel de importé.

Where the eye mixes immortels and importées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. immortels (VCCVCCVCC) and importées (VCCVCCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

9 ch
immortels
9 ch
importées

Why the eye confuses immortels with importées

A purely visual mix-up. immortels (\i.mɔʁ.tɛl\) and importées (\ɛ̃.pɔʁ.te\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49356, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

immortels is recorded at frequency rank #20,758, classified as anadj, pronounced \i.mɔʁ.tɛl\. importées is at rank #28,598, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.pɔʁ.te\.

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 49356, this pair ranks #171,366 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of immortels vs importées

Shared letters: eimorst. Private to "immortels": l. Private to "importées": pé.

"immortels" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCC  ·  "importées" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • immortels ← immoretls · immorrtels · immortells · immortelss · immortesl · immortles · immorttels · immotrels

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "immortels" and "importées" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\i.mɔʁ.tɛl\ versus \ɛ̃.pɔʁ.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "immortels" vs "importées" - which ranks higher?
"immortels" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,758 in our French list, against #28,598 for "importées". 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 "immortels" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "importées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #171,366 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "immortels" and "importées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "importée vs importées". 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 #171,366 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