importantesvsimposantesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,998
“importantes” frequency rank
#33,299
“imposantes” frequency rank
35297
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature importantes imposantes
Definition Féminin pluriel de important. Féminin pluriel de imposant.

Where the eye mixes importantes and imposantes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. importantes runs 11 letters (VCCVCCVCCVC) against imposantes's 10 (VCCVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

11 ch
importantes
10 ch
imposantes

Why the eye confuses importantes with imposantes

A purely visual mix-up. importantes (\ɛ̃.pɔʁ.tɑ̃t\) and imposantes (\ɛ̃.pɔ.zɑ̃t\) 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 35297, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

importantes is recorded at frequency rank #1,998, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.pɔʁ.tɑ̃t\. imposantes is at rank #33,299, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.pɔ.zɑ̃t\.

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 35297, this pair ranks #277,775 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of importantes vs imposantes

Shared letters: aeimnopst. Private to "importantes": r. Private to "imposantes": -.

"importantes" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCCVCCVC  ·  "imposantes" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • importantes ← immportantes · imoprtantes · imporatntes · imporrtantes · importanets · importanntes · importantess · importantse
  • imposantes ← immposantes · imopsantes · impoasntes · imposanets · imposanntes · imposantess · imposantse · imposanttes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "importantes" for "imposantes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.pɔʁ.tɑ̃t\ versus \ɛ̃.pɔ.zɑ̃t\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "importantes" or "imposantes" show up more?
"importantes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,998 in our French list, against #33,299 for "imposantes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "importantes" and "imposantes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "importantes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "imposantes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #277,775 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "importantes" and "imposantes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "imposantes vs imposants". 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 #277,775 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