imprimévsimprimerTell them apart

Quick tell: imprimé is a noun, imprimer is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“imprimé” is a noun and “imprimer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,071
“imprimé” frequency rank
#7,579
“imprimer” frequency rank
14650
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature imprimé imprimer
Definition Livre imprimé. Faire ou laisser une empreinte sur quelque chose, y marquer des traits, une figure.

Same sound, different letters: imprimé vs imprimer

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

7 ch
imprimé
8 ch
imprimer

Same sound, different spelling - imprimé / imprimer

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: imprimé and imprimer carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ɛ̃.pʁi.me\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, 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 14650, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

imprimé is recorded at frequency rank #7,071, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.pʁi.me\. imprimer is at rank #7,579, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.pʁi.me\.

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 14650, this pair ranks #395,780 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of imprimé vs imprimer

Shared letters: impr. Private to "imprimé": é. Private to "imprimer": e.

"imprimé" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVCV  ·  "imprimer" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • imprimer ← immprimer · impirmer · impprimer · impriemr · imprimerr · imprimmer · imprimre · imprmier

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "imprimé" and "imprimer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "imprimé" is a noun and "imprimer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "imprimé" vs "imprimer" - which ranks higher?
"imprimé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,071 in our French list, against #7,579 for "imprimer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "imprimé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "imprimer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #395,780 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "imprimé" and "imprimer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "imprimer vs imprimeurs". 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 #395,780 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