incitervsincitésWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“inciter” and “incités” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#8,726
“inciter” frequency rank
#43,989
“incités” frequency rank
52715
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature inciter incités
Definition Pousser, porter vivement à (une action, une attitude, un comportement, un état). Participe passé masculin pluriel de inciter.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set inciter and incités apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
inciter
7 ch
incités

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

This is the hard kind. inciter and incités are pronounced identically (\ɛ̃.si.te\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52715, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

inciter is recorded at frequency rank #8,726, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.si.te\. incités is at rank #43,989, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.si.te\.

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 52715, this pair ranks #145,791 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of inciter vs incités

Shared letters: cint. Private to "inciter": er. Private to "incités": .

"inciter" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "incités" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • incitericniter · incciter · incietr · inciterr · incitre · incitter · inctier · inicter

Frequency comparison

inciter#8,726
incités#43,989

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "inciter" and "incités" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ɛ̃.si.te\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "inciter" or "incités"?
"inciter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,726 in our French list, against #43,989 for "incités". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering inciter vs incités

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “inciter” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list