imprégnervsimprégnésWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: imprégner is a verb, imprégnés is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#33,733
“imprégner” frequency rank
#47,953
“imprégnés” frequency rank
81686
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature imprégner imprégnés
Definition Féconder ; rendre prégnant. Masculin pluriel de imprégné.

Same sound, different letters: imprégner vs imprégnés

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. imprégner and imprégnés follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
imprégner
9 ch
imprégnés

Same sound, different spelling - imprégner / imprégnés

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: imprégner and imprégnés carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ɛ̃.pʁe.ɲe\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81686, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

imprégner is recorded at frequency rank #33,733, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.pʁe.ɲe\. imprégnés is at rank #47,953, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.pʁe.ɲe\.

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 81686, this pair ranks #18,236 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of imprégner vs imprégnés

Shared letters: gimnpré. Private to "imprégner": e. Private to "imprégnés": s.

"imprégner" · 9 letters · shape VCCCVCCVC  ·  "imprégnés" · 9 letters · shape VCCCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "imprégner" and "imprégnés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "imprégner" is a verb and "imprégnés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "imprégner" or "imprégnés"?
"imprégner" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,733 in our French list, against #47,953 for "imprégnés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "imprégner" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "imprégnés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,236 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "imprégner" and "imprégnés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "imprégnés vs imprévues". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #18,236 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