écroulervsenrouléeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#23,079
“écrouler” frequency rank
#36,374
“enroulée” frequency rank
59453
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature écrouler enroulée
Definition Tomber en s’affaissant. Participe passé féminin singulier de enrouler.

Where the eye mixes écrouler and enroulée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. écrouler (VCCVVCVC) and enroulée (VCCVVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
écrouler
8 ch
enroulée

Visual trap between écrouler and enroulée

A purely visual mix-up. écrouler (\e.kʁu.le\) and enroulée (\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 share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59453, 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\. enroulée is at rank #36,374, 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 59453, this pair ranks #103,050 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of écrouler vs enroulée

Shared letters: elorué. Private to "écrouler": c. Private to "enroulée": n.

"écrouler" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCVC  ·  "enroulée" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "écrouler" and "enroulée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\e.kʁu.le\ versus \ɑ̃.ʁu.le\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "écrouler" vs "enroulée" - which ranks higher?
"écrouler" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,079 in our French list, against #36,374 for "enroulée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "écrouler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "enroulée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #103,050 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "écrouler" and "enroulée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "enrôlés vs enroulée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #103,050 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