Which to use
“inspire” and “inspirer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,468
- “inspire” frequency rank
- #7,717
- “inspirer” frequency rank
- 13185
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | inspire | inspirer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de inspirer. | Faire pénétrer artificiellement de l’air dans les poumons. |
Where the eye mixes inspire and inspirer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. inspire runs 7 letters (VCCCVCV) against inspirer's 8 (VCCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between inspire and inspirer
A purely visual mix-up. inspire (\ɛ̃s.piʁ\) and inspirer (\ɛ̃s.pi.ʁe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “inspire” sits inside “inspirer”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13185, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
inspire is recorded at frequency rank #5,468, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃s.piʁ\. inspirer is at rank #7,717, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃s.pi.ʁe\.
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 13185, this pair ranks #402,076 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of inspire vs inspirer
Shared letters: einprs. Private to "inspire": -. Private to "inspirer": -.
"inspire" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVCV · "inspirer" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "inspire" for "inspirer" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "inspire" or "inspirer" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "inspire" and "inspirer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "inspire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "inspirer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #402,076 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "inspire" and "inspirer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "inspire vs Issoire". 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 #402,076 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.