Which to use
“irrégulier” is an adjective and “irrégulière” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #21,976
- “irrégulier” frequency rank
- #14,958
- “irrégulière” frequency rank
- 36934
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | irrégulier | irrégulière |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui n’est pas selon les règles, qui ne suit pas les règles. | Femme qui n’a pas un statut juridique légal, du point de vue du séjour dans un pays, du point de vue professionnel. |
Where the eye mixes irrégulier and irrégulière
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. irrégulier runs 10 letters (VCCVCVCVVC) against irrégulière's 11 (VCCVCVCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: irrégulier vs irrégulière
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: irrégulier is \i.ʁe.ɡy.lje\ while irrégulière is \i.ʁe.ɡy.ljɛʁ\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36934, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
irrégulier is recorded at frequency rank #21,976, classified as anadj, pronounced \i.ʁe.ɡy.lje\. irrégulière is at rank #14,958, tagged as anoun, pronounced \i.ʁe.ɡy.ljɛʁ\.
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 36934, this pair ranks #266,092 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of irrégulier vs irrégulière
Shared letters: egilrué. Private to "irrégulier": -. Private to "irrégulière": è.
"irrégulier" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVVC · "irrégulière" · 11 letters · shape VCCVCVCVVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "irrégulier" for "irrégulière" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "irrégulier" or "irrégulière" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "irrégulier" and "irrégulière" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "irrégulier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "irrégulière" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #266,092 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "irrégulier" and "irrégulière" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "irrégulier vs irrégulières". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #266,092 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.