intentionnelvsintentionnelleWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#32,863
“intentionnel” frequency rank
#36,445
“intentionnelle” frequency rank
69308
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature intentionnel intentionnelle
Definition Relatif à l’intention. Féminin singulier de intentionnel.

Same sound, different letters: intentionnel vs intentionnelle

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 12 letters. intentionnel runs 12 letters (VCCVCCVVCCVC) against intentionnelle's 14 (VCCVCCVVCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

12 ch
intentionnel
14 ch
intentionnelle

Homophone desk: intentionnel vs intentionnelle

This is the hard kind. intentionnel and intentionnelle are pronounced identically (\ɛ̃.tɑ̃.sjɔ.nɛl\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “intentionnel” sits inside “intentionnelle”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69308, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

intentionnel is recorded at frequency rank #32,863, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.tɑ̃.sjɔ.nɛl\. intentionnelle is at rank #36,445, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.tɑ̃.sjɔ.nɛl\.

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 69308, this pair ranks #55,632 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of intentionnel vs intentionnelle

Shared letters: eilnot. Private to "intentionnel": -. Private to "intentionnelle": -.

"intentionnel" · 12 letters · shape VCCVCCVVCCVC  ·  "intentionnelle" · 14 letters · shape VCCVCCVVCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • intentionnel ← inetntionnel · inntentionnel · intenitonnel · intenntionnel · intentinonel · intentionel · intentionenl · intentionnell
  • intentionnelle ← inetntionnelle · inntentionnelle · intenitonnelle · intenntionnelle · intentinonelle · intentionelle · intentionenlle · intentionnele

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "intentionnel" and "intentionnelle" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ɛ̃.tɑ̃.sjɔ.nɛl\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "intentionnel" vs "intentionnelle" - which ranks higher?
"intentionnel" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,863 in our French list, against #36,445 for "intentionnelle". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "intentionnel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "intentionnelle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #55,632 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "intentionnel" and "intentionnelle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "intentionnel vs intentionnés". 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 #55,632 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