innévsinterTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#26,410
“inné” frequency rank
#3,928
“inter” frequency rank
30338
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature inné inter
Definition Qui est né avec nous, est héréditaire et déterminé en naissant, même si cela se manifeste après la naissance. Utilisé autrefois pour désigner le réseau téléphonique interurbain.

Where the eye mixes inné and inter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
inné
5 ch
inter

Look-alike desk: inné vs inter

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: inné is \in.ne\ 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30338, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

inné is recorded at frequency rank #26,410, classified as anadj, pronounced \in.ne\. 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 30338, this pair ranks #311,009 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of inné vs inter

Shared letters: in. Private to "inné": é. Private to "inter": ert.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • interinetr · innter · interr · intre · intter · itner · niter

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "inné" and "inter" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "inné" is an adjective and "inter" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "inné" vs "inter" - which ranks higher?
"inter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,928 in our French list, against #26,410 for "inné". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "inné" and "inter" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "inné" 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 #311,009 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "inné" and "inter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ime vs inné". 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 #311,009 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