Which to use
“intensive” and “intensives” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,417
- “intensive” frequency rank
- #43,509
- “intensives” frequency rank
- 58926
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | intensive | intensives |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de intensif. | Féminin pluriel de intensif. |
Same sound, different letters: intensive vs intensives
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. intensive runs 9 letters (VCCVCCVCV) against intensives's 10 (VCCVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - intensive / intensives
This is the hard kind. intensive and intensives are pronounced identically (\ɛ̃.tɑ̃.siv\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “intensive” sits inside “intensives”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58926, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
intensive is recorded at frequency rank #15,417, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.tɑ̃.siv\. intensives is at rank #43,509, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.tɑ̃.siv\.
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 58926, this pair ranks #106,106 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of intensive vs intensives
Shared letters: einstv. Private to "intensive": -. Private to "intensives": -.
"intensive" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCV · "intensives" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- intensive ← inetnsive · inntensive · intenisve · intennsive · intensiev · intensivve · intenssive · intensvie
- intensives ← inetnsives · inntensives · intenisves · intennsives · intensievs · intensivess · intensivse · intensivves
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "intensive" and "intensives" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "intensive" or "intensives"?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "intensive" / "intensives". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "intensive" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "intensives" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #106,106 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "intensive" and "intensives" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "intensive vs inventive". 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 #106,106 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.