IrènevsirezWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Irène is a name, irez is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Irène” is a name and “irez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,047
“Irène” frequency rank
#25,370
“irez” frequency rank
44417
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Irène irez
Definition Prénom féminin. Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif futur simple de aller.

Where the eye mixes Irène and irez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Irène
4 ch
irez

Look-alike desk: Irène vs irez

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Irène is \i.ʁɛn\ while irez is \i.ʁe\. 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 (name vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44417, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Irène is recorded at frequency rank #19,047, classified as aname, pronounced \i.ʁɛn\. irez is at rank #25,370, tagged as averb, pronounced \i.ʁe\.

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 44417, this pair ranks #210,632 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Irène vs irez

Shared letters: eir. Private to "Irène": . Private to "irez": z.

"Irène" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "irez" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • irezierz · irezz · irrez · irze

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Irène" for "irez" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Irène" is a name and "irez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Irène" vs "irez" - which ranks higher?
"Irène" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,047 in our French list, against #25,370 for "irez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Irène" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "irez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #210,632 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Irène" and "irez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ime vs irez". 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 #210,632 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