allumervsallumezWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#8,329
“allumer” frequency rank
#44,851
“allumez” frequency rank
53180
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature allumer allumez
Definition Enflammer ; mettre le feu à. Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe allumer.

Same sound, different letters: allumer vs allumez

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.

7 ch
allumer
7 ch
allumez

Same sound, different spelling - allumer / allumez

This is the hard kind. allumer and allumez are pronounced identically (\a.ly.me\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by a single letter - r in “allumer” becomes z in “allumez”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53180, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

allumer is recorded at frequency rank #8,329, classified as averb, pronounced \a.ly.me\. allumez is at rank #44,851, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.ly.me\.

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 53180, this pair ranks #142,530 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of allumer vs allumez

Shared letters: aelmu. Private to "allumer": r. Private to "allumez": z.

"allumer" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "allumez" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • allumerallmuer · alluemr · allumerr · allummer · allumre · alulmer · alumer · lalumer
  • allumezallmuez · alluemz · allumezz · allummez · allumze · alulmez · alumez · lalumez

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "allumer" for "allumez" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\a.ly.me\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "allumer" vs "allumez" - which ranks higher?
"allumer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,329 in our French list, against #44,851 for "allumez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "allumer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "allumez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #142,530 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "allumer" and "allumez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "allumez vs assumez". 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 #142,530 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