élargievsénergieWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: élargie is a verb, énergie is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“élargie” is a verb and “énergie” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,516
“élargie” frequency rank
#861
“énergie” frequency rank
17377
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature élargie énergie
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de élargir. Force en action.

Where the eye mixes élargie and énergie

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. élargie and énergie follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
élargie
7 ch
énergie

Why the eye confuses élargie with énergie

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: élargie is \e.laʁ.ʒi\ while énergie is \e.nɛʁ.ʒi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17377, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

élargie is recorded at frequency rank #16,516, classified as averb, pronounced \e.laʁ.ʒi\. énergie is at rank #861, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.nɛʁ.ʒi\.

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 17377, this pair ranks #383,484 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of élargie vs énergie

Shared letters: egiré. Private to "élargie": al. Private to "énergie": n.

"élargie" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVV  ·  "énergie" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "élargie" and "énergie" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "élargie" is a verb and "énergie" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "élargie" vs "énergie" - which ranks higher?
"énergie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #861 in our French list, against #16,516 for "élargie". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "élargie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "énergie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #383,484 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "élargie" and "énergie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "élargie vs élargis". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #383,484 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