interesse vs intéresses, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“interesse” is a noun and “intéresses” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#25,015
“interesse” frequency rank: #31,093
“intéresses” frequency rank: 56108
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	interesse	intéresses
Definition	Intérêt.	Deuxième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de intéresser.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set interesse and intéresses apart are highlighted. They share 8 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

9 ch

interesse

10 ch

intéresses

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: interesse is \in.te.ˈrɛs.se\ while intéresses is \ɛ̃.te.ʁɛs\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56108, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

interesse is recorded at frequency rank #25,015, classified as anoun, pronounced \in.te.ˈrɛs.se\. 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 56108, this pair ranks #123,204 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of interesse vs intéresses

Shared letters: einrst. Private to "interesse": -. Private to "intéresses": é.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

interesse ← inetresse · innteresse · inteersse · interese · intereses · interresse · intersese · intreesse

Frequency comparison

interesse#25,015

intéresses#31,093

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "interesse" and "intéresses" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "interesse" is a noun and "intéresses" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "interesse" or "intéresses"?

"interesse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,015 in our French list, against #31,093 for "intéresses". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering interesse vs intéresses

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “interesse”; for a verb, it's “intéresses”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “interesse” entry
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