IndrevsireWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#14,957
“Indre” frequency rank
#23,590
“ire” frequency rank
38547
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Indre ire
Definition Rivière de France, affluent de la Loire, coulant dans le Cher, l’Indre et l’Indre-et-Loire. Colère.

Where the eye mixes Indre and ire

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

5 ch
Indre
3 ch
ire

Look-alike desk: Indre vs ire

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Indre is \ɛ̃dʁ\ while ire is \iʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 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 38547, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Indre is recorded at frequency rank #14,957, classified as aname, pronounced \ɛ̃dʁ\. ire is at rank #23,590, tagged as anoun, pronounced \iʁ\.

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 38547, this pair ranks #254,526 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Indre vs ire

Shared letters: eir. Private to "Indre": dn. Private to "ire": -.

"Indre" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV  ·  "ire" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Indreidnre · inddre · inder · indrre · inndre · inrde · nidre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Indre" and "ire" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Indre" is a name and "ire" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Indre" or "ire"?
"Indre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,957 in our French list, against #23,590 for "ire". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Indre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #254,526 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Indre" and "ire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ire vs isi". 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 #254,526 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