aliénévsaliénerWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: aliéné is a adjective, aliéner is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“aliéné” is an adjective and “aliéner” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41,113
“aliéné” frequency rank
#36,236
“aliéner” frequency rank
77349
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aliéné aliéner
Definition Sous une emprise impérieuse. Transférer à un autre la propriété d’un fonds ou de ce qui tient lieu de fonds.

Same sound, different letters: aliéné vs aliéner

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. aliéné runs 6 letters (VCVVCV) against aliéner's 7 (VCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
aliéné
7 ch
aliéner

Same sound, different spelling - aliéné / aliéner

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: aliéné and aliéner carry the same recorded pronunciation, \a.lje.ne\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77349, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aliéné is recorded at frequency rank #41,113, classified as anadj, pronounced \a.lje.ne\. aliéner is at rank #36,236, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.lje.ne\.

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 77349, this pair ranks #28,623 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of aliéné vs aliéner

Shared letters: ailné. Private to "aliéné": -. Private to "aliéner": er.

"aliéné" · 6 letters · shape VCVVCV  ·  "aliéner" · 7 letters · shape VCVVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "aliéné" for "aliéner" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "aliéné" is an adjective and "aliéner" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "aliéné" or "aliéner" show up more?
"aliéner" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,236 in our French list, against #41,113 for "aliéné". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "aliéné" / "aliéner". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "aliéné" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aliéner" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #28,623 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aliéné" and "aliéner" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aliéné vs alizé". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #28,623 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