impolivsimpôtWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: impoli is a adjective, impôt is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“impoli” is an adjective and “impôt” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#32,009
“impoli” frequency rank
#2,227
“impôt” frequency rank
34236
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature impoli impôt
Definition Qui est sans politesse. Prélèvement pécuniaire, établi par la loi, obligatoire et sans contrepartie directe, perçu par l’État ou les collectivités publiques afin de financer les dépenses publiques.

Where the eye mixes impoli and impôt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. impoli runs 6 letters (VCCVCV) against impôt's 5 (VCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
impoli
5 ch
impôt

Look-alike desk: impoli vs impôt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: impoli is \ɛ̃.pɔ.li\ while impôt is \ɛ̃.po\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34236, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

impoli is recorded at frequency rank #32,009, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.pɔ.li\. impôt is at rank #2,227, 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 34236, this pair ranks #285,221 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of impoli vs impôt

Shared letters: imp. Private to "impoli": lo. Private to "impôt": tô.

"impoli" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "impôt" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • impoli ← immpoli · imopli · imploi · impoil · impolli · imppoli · ipmoli · mipoli

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "impoli" and "impôt" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "impoli" is an adjective and "impôt" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "impoli" or "impôt"?
"impôt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,227 in our French list, against #32,009 for "impoli". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "impoli" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "impôt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #285,221 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "impoli" and "impôt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "impoli vs impuni". 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 #285,221 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