IndevsinterWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Inde is a name, inter is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Inde” is a name and “inter” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,482
“Inde” frequency rank
#3,928
“inter” frequency rank
6410
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Inde inter
Definition Très grand pays d’Asie, bordé par la Chine, le Népal et le Bhoutan au nord, la Birmanie et le Bangladesh à l’est, la golfe du Bengale et la mer d’Oman au sud, et le Pakistan à l’ouest, et dont la capitale est New Delhi (la Nouvelle-Delhi). Utilisé autrefois pour désigner le réseau téléphonique interurbain.

Where the eye mixes Inde and inter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Inde
5 ch
inter

Why the eye confuses Inde with inter

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Inde is \ɛ̃d\ while inter is \ɛ̃.tɛʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6410, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Inde is recorded at frequency rank #2,482, classified as aname, pronounced \ɛ̃d\. inter is at rank #3,928, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.tɛʁ\.

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 6410, this pair ranks #426,304 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Inde vs inter

Shared letters: ein. Private to "Inde": d. Private to "inter": rt.

"Inde" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "inter" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Indeidne · indde · innde · nide
  • interinetr · innter · interr · intre · intter · itner · niter

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Inde" for "inter" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Inde" is a name and "inter" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "Inde" or "inter" show up more?
"Inde" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,482 in our French list, against #3,928 for "inter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Inde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "inter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #426,304 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Inde" and "inter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ime vs Inde". 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 #426,304 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