Which to use
“impose” is a verb and “impôt” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,579
- “impose” frequency rank
- #2,227
- “impôt” frequency rank
- 4806
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | impose | impôt |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de imposer. | 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 impose and impôt
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between impose and impôt
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: impose is \ɛ̃.poz\ 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4806, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
impose is recorded at frequency rank #2,579, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.poz\. 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 4806, this pair ranks #430,643 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of impose vs impôt
Shared letters: imp. Private to "impose": eos. Private to "impôt": tô.
"impose" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "impôt" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- impose ← immpose · imopse · impoes · imposse · imppose · impsoe · ipmose · mipose
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "impose" and "impôt" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "impose" or "impôt" show up more?
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 "impose" 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 #430,643 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "impose" and "impôt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "impose vs impulse". 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 #430,643 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.