Which one should you use?
While incompétent is a standard term, you might choose inapte to focus on a lack of suitability for a role or défaillant to formally highlight a failure to meet responsibilities. For a colloquial way to say someone is not up to par or not up to the task, you can use the expression pas à la hauteur.
Is it said differently in some regions?
In Quebec, the informal term nullard is used to describe someone as incompetent.
How does it change in a sentence?
The form of the adjective changes to match the gender and number of the person being described. The feminine form is created by adding an 'e' to the end of the masculine form to get incompétente. For groups, the masculine plural form is created by adding an 's' to the masculine singular form to get incompétents and the feminine plural form is created by adding 'es' to the feminine singular form to get incompétentes.
How do you pronounce it?
/ɛ̃.kɔ̃.pe.tɑ̃/
Did you know?
- In a French courtroom, if a judge is described as incompétent, it is not an insult to their intelligence or skill. Instead, it is a technical term meaning the court lacks the legal jurisdiction to rule on that specific matter.
- To avoid the clinical harshness of incompétent, French speakers often use the idiom pas à la hauteur, which literally translates to 'not at the height'.
- While 'competence' in English often refers to a general ability, the French compétence is frequently used as a noun to describe a specific unit or 'module' of knowledge in an educational curriculum.
Examples in context
- Tom est très incompétent.Tom is very incompetent.This example shows how to use incompétent with an adverb to describe someone.Tatoeba #8103428 by Zelphy, translation #3436775 by CK
- Cet homme est incompétent.This man is incompetent.This sentence shows how to use incompétent to describe a man.Tatoeba #1787843 by sacredceltic, translation #1787035 by Spamster
- Je ne suis pas incompétent.I'm not incompetent.This sentence shows how to use the negative form of incompétent.Tatoeba #7559513 by felix63, translation #3330428 by CK
- Le nouveau chef est totalement incompétent dans la gestion d'équipe.The new boss is completely incompetent in team management.
- Son manque de compétences le rend inapte à ce poste.His lack of skills makes him incompetent for this position.
- La gestion défaillante de son équipe montre son incompétence.The team's failing management displays his incompetence.
- Cet employé-là est franchement nul dans son travail.That employee is truly incompetent in his work.
- Il n'est vraiment pas à la hauteur pour diriger cette équipe.He is truly incompetent to lead this team.
- 22 more sentences on Tatoeba
Example conversation
Lucas and Manon are discussing a coworker's performance.
- LucasJe pense que notre nouveau collègue est incompétent.I think our new colleague is incompetent.
- ManonC'est vrai, il fait beaucoup d'erreurs.It's true, he makes a lot of mistakes.
- LucasIl semble totalement incompétent pour ce poste.He seems totally incompetent for this position.
- ManonOn devrait en parler au patron.We should talk to the boss about it.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “incompetent” translations and entries incompétent, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
