importancevsimportantesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: importance is a noun, importantes is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#1,182
“importance” frequency rank
#1,998
“importantes” frequency rank
3180
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature importance importantes
Definition Ce qui fait qu’une chose est d’un grand intérêt, est considérable par elle-même, ou par les circonstances qui l’accompagnent, ou par les suites qu’elle peut avoir. Féminin pluriel de important.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set importance and importantes apart are highlighted. They share 9 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

10 ch
importance
11 ch
importantes

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

importance and importantes form a confusable pair in the French index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3180, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

importance is recorded at frequency rank #1,182, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.pɔʁ.tɑ̃s\. importantes is at rank #1,998, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.pɔʁ.tɑ̃t\.

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 3180, this pair ranks #434,604 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Frequency comparison

importance#1,182
importantes#1,998

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "importance" and "importantes" be used interchangeably?
No, "importance" and "importantes" have distinct meanings and cannot be swapped without changing the meaning of a sentence. Understanding the specific definition and context for each word is essential for correct usage.

Remembering importance vs importantes

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “importance”; for an adjective, it's “importantes”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “importance” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list