instruvsintrusWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: instru is a noun, intrus is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#49,729
“instru” frequency rank
#20,474
“intrus” frequency rank
70203
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature instru intrus
Definition (Par apocope) Partie musicale d’un morceau de rap ou de hip-hop. Introduit, contre le droit, dans quelque dignité ecclésiastique.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set instru and intrus apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
instru
6 ch
intrus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: instru is \ɛ̃s.tʁy\ while intrus is \ɛ̃.tʁy\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they are an anagram pair: the same letters reordered, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70203, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

instru is recorded at frequency rank #49,729, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃s.tʁy\. intrus is at rank #20,474, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.tʁy\.

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 70203, this pair ranks #52,247 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of instru vs intrus

Shared letters: inrstu. Private to "instru": -. Private to "intrus": -.

"instru" · 6 letters · shape VCCCCV  ·  "intrus" · 6 letters · shape VCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • instruinnstru · insrtu · insstru · instrru · insttru · instur · intsru · isntru
  • intrusinntrus · inrtus · intrrus · intrsu · intruss · inttrus · inturs · itnrus

Frequency comparison

instru#49,729
intrus#20,474

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "instru" and "intrus" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "instru" is a noun and "intrus" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "instru" or "intrus"?
"intrus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,474 in our French list, against #49,729 for "instru". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering instru vs intrus

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “instru”; for an adjective, it's “intrus”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “instru” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list