Which to use
“impensable” and “imposable” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,452
- “impensable” frequency rank
- #19,317
- “imposable” frequency rank
- 36769
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | impensable | imposable |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui ne peut pas être compris par la pensée. | Qui peut être soumis aux impositions. |
Where the eye mixes impensable and imposable
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between impensable and imposable
A purely visual mix-up. impensable (\ɛ̃.pɑ̃.sabl\) and imposable (\ɛ̃.po.zabl\) 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 36769, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
impensable is recorded at frequency rank #17,452, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.pɑ̃.sabl\. imposable is at rank #19,317, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.po.zabl\.
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 36769, this pair ranks #267,253 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of impensable vs imposable
Shared letters: abeilmps. Private to "impensable": n. Private to "imposable": o.
"impensable" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCCV · "imposable" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- impensable ← imepnsable · immpensable · impenasble · impennsable · impensabble · impensabel · impensablle · impensalbe
- imposable ← immposable · imopsable · impoasble · imposabble · imposabel · imposablle · imposalbe · imposbale
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "impensable" for "imposable" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "impensable" or "imposable" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "impensable" and "imposable" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "impensable" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "imposable" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #267,253 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "impensable" and "imposable" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "imparable vs imposable". 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 #267,253 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.