écroulevsenroulerTell them apart

Which to use

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

#19,432
“écroule” frequency rank
#37,795
“enrouler” frequency rank
57227
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature écroule enrouler
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de écrouler. Rouler plusieurs fois une chose autour d’une autre, ou sur elle-même.

Where the eye mixes écroule and enrouler

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. écroule runs 7 letters (VCCVVCV) against enrouler's 8 (VCCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
écroule
8 ch
enrouler

Why the eye confuses écroule with enrouler

A purely visual mix-up. écroule (\e.kʁul\) and enrouler (\ɑ̃.ʁu.le\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57227, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

écroule is recorded at frequency rank #19,432, classified as averb, pronounced \e.kʁul\. enrouler is at rank #37,795, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.ʁu.le\.

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 57227, this pair ranks #116,292 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of écroule vs enrouler

Shared letters: eloru. Private to "écroule": . Private to "enrouler": n.

"écroule" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCV  ·  "enrouler" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • enroulerennrouler · enoruler · enroluer · enrouelr · enroulerr · enrouller · enroulre · enrrouler

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "écroule" and "enrouler" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\e.kʁul\ versus \ɑ̃.ʁu.le\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "écroule" or "enrouler" show up more?
"écroule" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,432 in our French list, against #37,795 for "enrouler". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "écroule" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "enrouler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #116,292 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "écroule" and "enrouler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "enrôlés vs enrouler". 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 #116,292 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