inquiétéevsinquiètesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: inquiétée is a verb, inquiètes is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#38,365
“inquiétée” frequency rank
#10,724
“inquiètes” frequency rank
49089
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature inquiétée inquiètes
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de inquiéter. Féminin pluriel de inquiet.

Where the eye mixes inquiétée and inquiètes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. inquiétée (VCCVVVCVV) and inquiètes (VCCVVVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

9 ch
inquiétée
9 ch
inquiètes

Look-alike desk: inquiétée vs inquiètes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: inquiétée is \ɛ̃.kje.te\ while inquiètes is \ɛ̃.kjɛt\. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49089, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

inquiétée is recorded at frequency rank #38,365, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.kje.te\. inquiètes is at rank #10,724, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.kjɛt\.

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 49089, this pair ranks #173,569 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of inquiétée vs inquiètes

Shared letters: einqtu. Private to "inquiétée": é. Private to "inquiètes": sè.

"inquiétée" · 9 letters · shape VCCVVVCVV  ·  "inquiètes" · 9 letters · shape VCCVVVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "inquiétée" and "inquiètes" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "inquiétée" is a verb and "inquiètes" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "inquiétée" or "inquiètes"?
"inquiètes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,724 in our French list, against #38,365 for "inquiétée". 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 "inquiétée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "inquiètes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #173,569 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "inquiétée" and "inquiètes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "inquiétée vs inquiètent". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #173,569 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