Which to use
“écrouler” and “enrôler” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,079
- “écrouler” frequency rank
- #31,479
- “enrôler” frequency rank
- 54558
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | écrouler | enrôler |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tomber en s’affaissant. | Inscrire sur les rôles de l’armée de terre ou de mer. |
Where the eye mixes écrouler and enrôler
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. écrouler runs 8 letters (VCCVVCVC) against enrôler's 7 (VCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses écrouler with enrôler
A purely visual mix-up. écrouler (\e.kʁu.le\) and enrôler (\ɑ̃.ʁɔ.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 54558, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
écrouler is recorded at frequency rank #23,079, classified as averb, pronounced \e.kʁu.le\. enrôler is at rank #31,479, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.ʁɔ.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 54558, this pair ranks #133,208 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of écrouler vs enrôler
Shared letters: elr. Private to "écrouler": coué. Private to "enrôler": nô.
"écrouler" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCVC · "enrôler" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "écrouler" for "enrôler" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "écrouler" or "enrôler" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "écrouler" and "enrôler" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "écrouler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "enrôler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #133,208 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "écrouler" and "enrôler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "enrôler vs enrôlés". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #133,208 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.