intensevsintenterTell them apart

Quick tell: intense is a adjective, intenter is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#4,498
“intense” frequency rank
#36,005
“intenter” frequency rank
40503
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature intense intenter
Definition Qui dépasse la mesure ordinaire ; qui est grand, fort ou vif. Diriger contre quelqu’un un procès, une accusation. Il n’est usité que dans ces phrases,

Where the eye mixes intense and intenter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
intense
8 ch
intenter

Visual trap between intense and intenter

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: intense is \ɛ̃.tɑ̃s\ while intenter is \ɛ̃.tɑ̃.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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40503, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

intense is recorded at frequency rank #4,498, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.tɑ̃s\. intenter is at rank #36,005, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.tɑ̃.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 40503, this pair ranks #240,001 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of intense vs intenter

Shared letters: eint. Private to "intense": s. Private to "intenter": r.

"intense" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV  ·  "intenter" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • intenseinetnse · inntense · intenes · intennse · intensse · intesne · intnese · inttense
  • intenterinetnter · inntenter · intenetr · intennter · intenterr · intentre · intentter · intetner

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "intense" for "intenter" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "intense" is an adjective and "intenter" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "intense" or "intenter" show up more?
"intense" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,498 in our French list, against #36,005 for "intenter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "intense" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "intenter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #240,001 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "intense" and "intenter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "intenter vs inventes". 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 #240,001 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