Which to use
“encre” is a noun and “enflé” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,055
- “encre” frequency rank
- #42,318
- “enflé” frequency rank
- 49373
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | encre | enflé |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Liquide ordinairement noir dont on se sert pour écrire, pour imprimer. | Qui est soumis à une enflure. |
Where the eye mixes encre and enflé
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. encre and enflé follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between encre and enflé
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: encre is \ɑ̃kʁ\ while enflé is \ɑ̃.fle\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49373, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
encre is recorded at frequency rank #7,055, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃kʁ\. 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 49373, this pair ranks #171,225 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of encre vs enflé
Shared letters: en. Private to "encre": cr. Private to "enflé": flé.
"encre" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV · "enflé" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- encre ← ecnre · enccre · encer · encrre · enncre · enrce · necre
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "encre" and "enflé" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "encre" or "enflé" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "encre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "enflé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #171,225 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "encre" and "enflé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ele vs enflé". 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 #171,225 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.