Which to use
“enfance” is a noun and “enfoncé” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,951
- “enfance” frequency rank
- #18,737
- “enfoncé” frequency rank
- 20688
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | enfance | enfoncé |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première partie de la vie de l’être humain, précédant l’adolescence. | Qui n’est pas au niveau du reste, qui forme cavité, ou un endroit profond. |
Where the eye mixes enfance and enfoncé
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. enfance and enfoncé follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between enfance and enfoncé
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: enfance is \ɑ̃.fɑ̃s\ while enfoncé is \ɑ̃.fɔ̃.se\. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20688, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
enfance is recorded at frequency rank #1,951, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.fɑ̃s\. enfoncé is at rank #18,737, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɑ̃.fɔ̃.se\.
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 20688, this pair ranks #367,014 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of enfance vs enfoncé
Shared letters: cefn. Private to "enfance": a. Private to "enfoncé": oé.
"enfance" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV · "enfoncé" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- enfance ← efnance · enafnce · enfacne · enfancce · enfanec · enfannce · enffance · enfnace
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "enfance" for "enfoncé" ever safe?
Frequency check: "enfance" vs "enfoncé" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "enfance" and "enfoncé" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "enfance" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "enfoncé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #367,014 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "enfance" and "enfoncé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "enfoncé vs énoncée". 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 #367,014 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.