elle vs enflé, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“elle” is a pronoun and “enflé” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41
“elle” frequency rank: #42,318
“enflé” frequency rank: 42359
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	elle	enflé
Definition	Pronom clitique de la troisième personne du singulier féminin sujet.	Qui est soumis à une enflure.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set elle and enflé apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

elle

5 ch

enflé

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: elle is \ɛl\ while enflé is \ɑ̃.fle\. 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 (pronoun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42359, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

elle is recorded at frequency rank #41, classified as apron, pronounced \ɛl\. enflé is at rank #42,318, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɑ̃.fle\.

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 42359, this pair ranks #226,194 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of elle vs enflé

Shared letters: el. Private to "elle": -. Private to "enflé": fné.

"elle" · 4 letters · shape VCCV · "enflé" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

elle ← elel · lele

Frequency comparison

elle#41

enflé#42,318

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "elle" and "enflé" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "elle" is a pronoun and "enflé" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "elle" or "enflé"?

"elle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41 in our French list, against #42,318 for "enflé". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering elle vs enflé

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a pronoun, it's “elle”; for an adjective, it's “enflé”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “elle” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable