elevenvsenleverWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: eleven is a adjective, enlever is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“eleven” is an adjective and “enlever” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,490
“eleven” frequency rank
#2,672
“enlever” frequency rank
38162
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature eleven enlever
Definition Onze. Déplacer vers le haut.

Where the eye mixes eleven and enlever

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. eleven runs 6 letters (VCVCVC) against enlever's 7 (VCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
eleven
7 ch
enlever

Look-alike desk: eleven vs enlever

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: eleven is \ɪ.ˈlɛv.ən\ while enlever is \ɑ̃l.ve\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38162, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

eleven is recorded at frequency rank #35,490, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɪ.ˈlɛv.ən\. enlever is at rank #2,672, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃l.ve\.

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 38162, this pair ranks #257,223 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of eleven vs enlever

Shared letters: elnv. Private to "eleven": -. Private to "enlever": r.

"eleven" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC  ·  "enlever" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • eleven ← eelven · eleevn · elevenn · elevne · elevven · elleven · elveen · leeven
  • enlever ← elnever · enelver · enleevr · enleverr · enlevre · enlevver · enllever · enlveer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "eleven" for "enlever" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "eleven" is an adjective and "enlever" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "eleven" or "enlever"?
"enlever" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,672 in our French list, against #35,490 for "eleven". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "eleven" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "enlever" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #257,223 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "eleven" and "enlever" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "éleva vs eleven". 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 #257,223 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