enfermevsenterréWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“enferme” and “enterré” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#15,617
“enferme” frequency rank
#7,688
“enterré” frequency rank
23305
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature enferme enterré
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de enfermer. Participe passé masculin singulier de enterrer.

Where the eye mixes enferme and enterré

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. enferme and enterré follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
enferme
7 ch
enterré

Visual trap between enferme and enterré

A purely visual mix-up. enferme (\ɑ̃.fɛʁm\) and enterré (\ɑ̃.te.ʁe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23305, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

enferme is recorded at frequency rank #15,617, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.fɛʁm\. enterré is at rank #7,688, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.te.ʁe\.

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 23305, this pair ranks #353,258 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of enferme vs enterré

Shared letters: enr. Private to "enferme": fm. Private to "enterré": té.

"enferme" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV  ·  "enterré" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • enferme ← efnerme · enefrme · enfemre · enferem · enfermme · enferrme · enfferme · enfreme

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "enferme" and "enterré" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃.fɛʁm\ versus \ɑ̃.te.ʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "enferme" vs "enterré" - which ranks higher?
"enterré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,688 in our French list, against #15,617 for "enferme". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "enferme" and "enterré" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "enferme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "enterré" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #353,258 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "enferme" and "enterré" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "enterré vs entêté". 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 #353,258 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list