improviservsimprovisésWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#24,242
“improviser” frequency rank
#39,844
“improvisés” frequency rank
64086
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature improviser improvisés
Definition Composer, sans préparation et sur-le-champ, des vers, un air de musique, un discours, etc. Masculin pluriel de improvisé.

Same sound, different letters: improviser vs improvisés

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters.

10 ch
improviser
10 ch
improvisés

Homophone desk: improviser vs improvisés

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: improviser and improvisés carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ɛ̃.pʁɔ.vi.ze\. 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 64086, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

improviser is recorded at frequency rank #24,242, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.pʁɔ.vi.ze\. improvisés is at rank #39,844, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.pʁɔ.vi.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 64086, this pair ranks #78,756 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of improviser vs improvisés

Shared letters: imoprsv. Private to "improviser": e. Private to "improvisés": é.

"improviser" · 10 letters · shape VCCCVCVCVC  ·  "improvisés" · 10 letters · shape VCCCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • improviserimmproviser · imporviser · impproviser · improivser · improviesr · improviserr · improvisre · improvisser

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "improviser" for "improvisés" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "improviser" is a verb and "improvisés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "improviser" vs "improvisés" - which ranks higher?
"improviser" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,242 in our French list, against #39,844 for "improvisés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "improviser" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "improvisés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #78,756 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "improviser" and "improvisés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "improvisées vs improvisés". 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 #78,756 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