intérieurvsintérieursWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#615
“intérieur” frequency rank
#9,856
“intérieurs” frequency rank
10471
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature intérieur intérieurs
Definition Qui est au dedans ; qui est relatif au dedans. Masculin pluriel de intérieur.

Same sound, different letters: intérieur vs intérieurs

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. intérieur runs 9 letters (VCCVCVVVC) against intérieurs's 10 (VCCVCVVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
intérieur
10 ch
intérieurs

Ear matches; page differs - intérieur and intérieurs

This is the hard kind. intérieur and intérieurs are pronounced identically (\ɛ̃.tɛ.ʁjœʁ\) 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) - “intérieur” sits inside “intérieurs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10471, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

intérieur is recorded at frequency rank #615, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.tɛ.ʁjœʁ\. intérieurs is at rank #9,856, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.tɛ.ʁjœʁ\.

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 10471, this pair ranks #412,865 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of intérieur vs intérieurs

Shared letters: einrtué. Private to "intérieur": -. Private to "intérieurs": s.

"intérieur" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVVVC  ·  "intérieurs" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVVVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "intérieur" for "intérieurs" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ɛ̃.tɛ.ʁjœʁ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "intérieur" or "intérieurs"?
"intérieur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #615 in our French list, against #9,856 for "intérieurs". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

"intérieur" and "intérieurs" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "intérieur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "intérieurs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #412,865 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "intérieur" and "intérieurs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "intérieur vs interner". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #412,865 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