insenséevsintensesConfusable pair

Which to use

“insensée” and “intenses” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#35,554
“insensée” frequency rank
#11,603
“intenses” frequency rank
47157
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature insensée intenses
Definition Féminin singulier de insensé. Pluriel de intense.

Where the eye mixes insensée and intenses

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. insensée (VCCVCCVV) and intenses (VCCVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
insensée
8 ch
intenses

Why the eye confuses insensée with intenses

A purely visual mix-up. insensée (\ɛ̃.sɑ̃.se\) and intenses (\ɛ̃.tɑ̃s\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47157, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

insensée is recorded at frequency rank #35,554, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.sɑ̃.se\. intenses is at rank #11,603, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.tɑ̃s\.

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 47157, this pair ranks #189,120 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of insensée vs intenses

Shared letters: eins. Private to "insensée": é. Private to "intenses": t.

"insensée" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVV  ·  "intenses" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • intenses ← inetnses · inntenses · inteness · intennses · intensess · intensses · intesnes · intneses

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "insensée" for "intenses" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.sɑ̃.se\ versus \ɛ̃.tɑ̃s\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "insensée" or "intenses" show up more?
"intenses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,603 in our French list, against #35,554 for "insensée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "insensée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "intenses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #189,120 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "insensée" and "intenses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "insensée vs insensés". 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 #189,120 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