imposéesvsimposerTell them apart

Quick tell: imposées is a adjective, imposer is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“imposées” is an adjective and “imposer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,337
“imposées” frequency rank
#2,580
“imposer” frequency rank
12917
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature imposées imposer
Definition Féminin pluriel de imposé. Mettre dessus.

Same sound, different letters: imposées vs imposer

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. imposées runs 8 letters (VCCVCVVC) against imposer's 7 (VCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
imposées
7 ch
imposer

Same sound, different spelling - imposées / imposer

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: imposées and imposer carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ɛ̃.po.ze\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12917, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

imposées is recorded at frequency rank #10,337, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.po.ze\. imposer is at rank #2,580, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.po.ze\.

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 12917, this pair ranks #403,204 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of imposées vs imposer

Shared letters: eimops. Private to "imposées": é. Private to "imposer": r.

"imposées" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVVC  ·  "imposer" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • imposer ← immposer · imopser · impoesr · imposerr · imposre · imposser · impposer · impsoer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "imposées" and "imposer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "imposées" is an adjective and "imposer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "imposées" or "imposer"?
"imposer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,580 in our French list, against #10,337 for "imposées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "imposées" / "imposer". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "imposées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "imposer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #403,204 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "imposées" and "imposer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "impasses vs imposées". 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 #403,204 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