Which to use
“enfant” is a noun and “enfuit” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #433
- “enfant” frequency rank
- #13,373
- “enfuit” frequency rank
- 13806
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | enfant | enfuit |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Garçon ou fille qui n’a pas encore atteint l’adolescence. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de enfuir. |
Where the eye mixes enfant and enfuit
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. enfant (VCCVCC) and enfuit (VCCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses enfant with enfuit
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: enfant is \ɑ̃.fɑ̃\ while enfuit is \ɑ̃.fɥi\. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13806, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
enfant is recorded at frequency rank #433, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.fɑ̃\. enfuit is at rank #13,373, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.fɥi\.
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 13806, this pair ranks #399,467 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of enfant vs enfuit
Shared letters: efnt. Private to "enfant": a. Private to "enfuit": iu.
"enfant" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC · "enfuit" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "enfant" and "enfuit" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "enfant" or "enfuit"?
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 "enfant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "enfuit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #399,467 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "enfant" and "enfuit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "enfouir vs enfuit". 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 #399,467 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.