inquiètevsinquiétéeTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#2,129
“inquiète” frequency rank
#38,365
“inquiétée” frequency rank
40494
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature inquiète inquiétée
Definition Personne inquiète. Participe passé féminin singulier de inquiéter.

Where the eye mixes inquiète and inquiétée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. inquiète runs 8 letters (VCCVVVCV) against inquiétée's 9 (VCCVVVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
inquiète
9 ch
inquiétée

Look-alike desk: inquiète vs inquiétée

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: inquiète is \ɛ̃.kjɛt\ while inquiétée is \ɛ̃.kje.te\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40494, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

inquiète is recorded at frequency rank #2,129, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.kjɛt\. inquiétée is at rank #38,365, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.kje.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 40494, this pair ranks #240,071 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of inquiète vs inquiétée

Shared letters: einqtu. Private to "inquiète": è. Private to "inquiétée": é.

"inquiète" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVVCV  ·  "inquiétée" · 9 letters · shape VCCVVVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "inquiète" and "inquiétée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "inquiète" is a noun and "inquiétée" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "inquiète" vs "inquiétée" - which ranks higher?
"inquiète" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,129 in our French list, against #38,365 for "inquiétée". 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 "inquiète" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "inquiétée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #240,071 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "inquiète" and "inquiétée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "inquiétée vs inquiètent". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #240,071 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