intervenaitvsintervenirTell them apart

Which to use

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

#38,866
“intervenait” frequency rank
#3,687
“intervenir” frequency rank
42553
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature intervenait intervenir
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de intervenir. Prendre part à une chose, entrer dans une affaire par quelque intérêt, par quelque obligation, par quelque nécessité que ce soit.

Where the eye mixes intervenait and intervenir

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. intervenait runs 11 letters (VCCVCCVCVVC) against intervenir's 10 (VCCVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

11 ch
intervenait
10 ch
intervenir

Look-alike desk: intervenait vs intervenir

A purely visual mix-up. intervenait (\ɛ̃.tɛʁ.və.nɛ\) and intervenir (\ɛ̃.tɛʁ.və.niʁ\) 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 42553, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

intervenait is recorded at frequency rank #38,866, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.tɛʁ.və.nɛ\. intervenir is at rank #3,687, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.tɛʁ.və.niʁ\.

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 42553, this pair ranks #224,722 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of intervenait vs intervenir

Shared letters: einrtv. Private to "intervenait": a. Private to "intervenir": -.

"intervenait" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVVC  ·  "intervenir" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • intervenait ← inetrvenait · inntervenait · interevnait · interrvenait · interveanit · intervenaitt · intervenati · interveniat
  • intervenir ← inetrvenir · inntervenir · interevnir · interrvenir · interveinr · intervenirr · intervennir · intervenri

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "intervenait" and "intervenir" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.tɛʁ.və.nɛ\ versus \ɛ̃.tɛʁ.və.niʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "intervenait" or "intervenir"?
"intervenir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,687 in our French list, against #38,866 for "intervenait". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "intervenait" and "intervenir" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "intervenait" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "intervenir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #224,722 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "intervenait" and "intervenir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "intervenait vs intervenant". 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 #224,722 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