enferméesvsenfermerTell them apart

Quick tell: enfermées is a adjective, enfermer is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“enfermées” is an adjective and “enfermer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,246
“enfermées” frequency rank
#9,651
“enfermer” frequency rank
49897
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature enfermées enfermer
Definition Féminin pluriel de enfermé. Mettre quelqu’un ou quelque chose dans un lieu fermé de tous côtés.

Same sound, different letters: enfermées vs enfermer

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. enfermées runs 9 letters (VCCVCCVVC) against enfermer's 8 (VCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
enfermées
8 ch
enfermer

Ear matches; page differs - enfermées and enfermer

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: enfermées and enfermer carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ɑ̃.fɛʁ.me\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49897, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

enfermées is recorded at frequency rank #40,246, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɑ̃.fɛʁ.me\. enfermer is at rank #9,651, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.fɛʁ.me\.

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 49897, this pair ranks #167,013 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of enfermées vs enfermer

Shared letters: efmnr. Private to "enfermées": sé. Private to "enfermer": -.

"enfermées" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVVC  ·  "enfermer" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • enfermer ← efnermer · enefrmer · enfemrer · enferemr · enfermerr · enfermmer · enfermre · enferrmer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "enfermées" for "enfermer" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "enfermées" is an adjective and "enfermer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "enfermées" or "enfermer" show up more?
"enfermer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,651 in our French list, against #40,246 for "enfermées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

"enfermées" and "enfermer" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "enfermées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "enfermer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #167,013 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "enfermées" and "enfermer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "enfermées vs enferment". 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 #167,013 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