intéressavsintéressesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#49,166
“intéressa” frequency rank
#31,093
“intéresses” frequency rank
80259
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature intéressa intéresses
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de intéresser. Deuxième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de intéresser.

Where the eye mixes intéressa and intéresses

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. intéressa runs 9 letters (VCCVCVCCV) against intéresses's 10 (VCCVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
intéressa
10 ch
intéresses

Why the eye confuses intéressa with intéresses

A purely visual mix-up. intéressa (\ɛ̃.te.ʁɛ.sa\) and intéresses (\ɛ̃.te.ʁɛs\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80259, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

intéressa is recorded at frequency rank #49,166, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.te.ʁɛ.sa\. intéresses is at rank #31,093, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.te.ʁɛs\.

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 80259, this pair ranks #21,410 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of intéressa vs intéresses

Shared letters: einrsté. Private to "intéressa": a. Private to "intéresses": -.

"intéressa" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCCV  ·  "intéresses" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "intéressa" and "intéresses" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.te.ʁɛ.sa\ versus \ɛ̃.te.ʁɛs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "intéressa" or "intéresses" show up more?
"intéresses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,093 in our French list, against #49,166 for "intéressa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "intéressa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "intéresses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #21,410 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "intéressa" and "intéresses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "intéressa vs interest". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #21,410 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