Which to use
“interest” and “intérêts” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #36,908
- “interest” frequency rank
- #1,481
- “intérêts” frequency rank
- 38389
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | interest | intérêts |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Intérêt. | Pluriel de intérêt. |
Where the eye mixes interest and intérêts
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. interest and intérêts follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses interest with intérêts
A purely visual mix-up. interest (\ˈɪn.tɹɪst\) and intérêts (\ɛ̃.te.ʁɛ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38389, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
interest is recorded at frequency rank #36,908, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈɪn.tɹɪst\. intérêts is at rank #1,481, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.te.ʁɛ\.
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 38389, this pair ranks #255,585 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of interest vs intérêts
Shared letters: inrst. Private to "interest": e. Private to "intérêts": éê.
"interest" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCC · "intérêts" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- interest ← inetrest · innterest · inteerst · interesst · interestt · interrest · interset · intreest
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "interest" and "intérêts" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "interest" or "intérêts" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "interest" and "intérêts" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "interest" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "intérêts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #255,585 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "interest" and "intérêts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "intéressa vs interest". 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 #255,585 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.