ingérervsintérêtTell them apart

Quick tell: ingérer is a verb, intérêt is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ingérer” is a verb and “intérêt” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,577
“ingérer” frequency rank
#616
“intérêt” frequency rank
35193
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ingérer intérêt
Definition Introduire une substance dans le corps. Ce qui importe, ce qui convient, en quelque manière que ce soit, à l’utilité, à l’avantage d’une personne ou d’une collectivité, d’un individu ou d’une personne morale, en ce qui concerne soit leur bien physique et matériel, soit leur bien intellectuel et moral, soit leur considération et leur honneur.

Where the eye mixes ingérer and intérêt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. ingérer and intérêt follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
ingérer
7 ch
intérêt

Visual trap between ingérer and intérêt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ingérer is \ɛ̃.ʒe.ʁe\ while intérêt is \ɛ̃.te.ʁɛ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35193, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ingérer is recorded at frequency rank #34,577, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.ʒe.ʁe\. intérêt is at rank #616, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.te.ʁɛ\.

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 35193, this pair ranks #278,488 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ingérer vs intérêt

Shared letters: inré. Private to "ingérer": eg. Private to "intérêt": tê.

"ingérer" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "intérêt" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ingérer" and "intérêt" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ingérer" is a verb and "intérêt" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ingérer" or "intérêt"?
"intérêt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #616 in our French list, against #34,577 for "ingérer". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ingérer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "intérêt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #278,488 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ingérer" and "intérêt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ingérer vs interner". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #278,488 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