Which to use
“impulsif” and “impulsive” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,205
- “impulsif” frequency rank
- #40,317
- “impulsive” frequency rank
- 68522
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | impulsif | impulsive |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui donne une impulsion. | Féminin singulier de impulsif. |
Where the eye mixes impulsif and impulsive
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: impulsif vs impulsive
A purely visual mix-up. impulsif (\ɛ̃.pyl.sif\) and impulsive (\ɛ̃.pyl.siv\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68522, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
impulsif is recorded at frequency rank #28,205, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.pyl.sif\. impulsive is at rank #40,317, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.pyl.siv\.
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 68522, this pair ranks #58,834 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of impulsif vs impulsive
Shared letters: ilmpsu. Private to "impulsif": f. Private to "impulsive": ev.
"impulsif" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC · "impulsive" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "impulsif" and "impulsive" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "impulsif" or "impulsive" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "impulsif" and "impulsive" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "impulsif" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "impulsive" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #58,834 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "impulsif" and "impulsive" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "impulse vs impulsive". 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 #58,834 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.