Which to use
“enfant” is a noun and “entrant” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #433
- “enfant” frequency rank
- #8,542
- “entrant” frequency rank
- 8975
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | enfant | entrant |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Garçon ou fille qui n’a pas encore atteint l’adolescence. | Qui entre. |
Where the eye mixes enfant and entrant
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. enfant runs 6 letters (VCCVCC) against entrant's 7 (VCCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between enfant and entrant
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: enfant is \ɑ̃.fɑ̃\ while entrant is \ɑ̃.tʁɑ̃\. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8975, 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\. entrant is at rank #8,542, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɑ̃.tʁɑ̃\.
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 8975, this pair ranks #418,216 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of enfant vs entrant
Shared letters: aent. Private to "enfant": f. Private to "entrant": r.
"enfant" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC · "entrant" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "enfant" for "entrant" ever safe?
Which is more common, "enfant" or "entrant"?
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 "enfant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "entrant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #418,216 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "enfant" and "entrant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "entrant vs entravent". 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 #418,216 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.