intervenirvsintervenusWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,687
“intervenir” frequency rank
#21,668
“intervenus” frequency rank
25355
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature intervenir intervenus
Definition Prendre part à une chose, entrer dans une affaire par quelque intérêt, par quelque obligation, par quelque nécessité que ce soit. Participe passé masculin pluriel du verbe intervenir.

Where the eye mixes intervenir and intervenus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. intervenir and intervenus follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

10 ch
intervenir
10 ch
intervenus

Visual trap between intervenir and intervenus

A purely visual mix-up. intervenir (\ɛ̃.tɛʁ.və.niʁ\) and intervenus (\ɛ̃.tɛʁ.və.ny\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25355, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

intervenir is recorded at frequency rank #3,687, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.tɛʁ.və.niʁ\. intervenus is at rank #21,668, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.tɛʁ.və.ny\.

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 25355, this pair ranks #341,346 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of intervenir vs intervenus

Shared letters: einrtv. Private to "intervenir": -. Private to "intervenus": su.

"intervenir" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVC  ·  "intervenus" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • intervenir ← inetrvenir · inntervenir · interevnir · interrvenir · interveinr · intervenirr · intervennir · intervenri
  • intervenus ← inetrvenus · inntervenus · interevnus · interrvenus · intervennus · intervensu · intervenuss · interveuns

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "intervenir" and "intervenus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.tɛʁ.və.niʁ\ versus \ɛ̃.tɛʁ.və.ny\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "intervenir" or "intervenus" show up more?
"intervenir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,687 in our French list, against #21,668 for "intervenus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "intervenir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "intervenus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #341,346 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "intervenir" and "intervenus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "intervenus vs interviens". 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 #341,346 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