enflammevsenflamméeConfusable pair

Quick tell: enflamme is a verb, enflammée is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#21,930
“enflamme” frequency rank
#37,792
“enflammée” frequency rank
59722
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature enflamme enflammée
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de enflammer. Féminin singulier de enflammé.

Where the eye mixes enflamme and enflammée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. enflamme runs 8 letters (VCCCVCCV) against enflammée's 9 (VCCCVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
enflamme
9 ch
enflammée

Visual trap between enflamme and enflammée

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: enflamme is \ɑ̃.flam\ while enflammée is \ɑ̃.fla.me\. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59722, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

enflamme is recorded at frequency rank #21,930, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.flam\. enflammée is at rank #37,792, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɑ̃.fla.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 59722, this pair ranks #101,527 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of enflamme vs enflammée

Shared letters: aeflmn. Private to "enflamme": -. Private to "enflammée": é.

"enflamme" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVCCV  ·  "enflammée" · 9 letters · shape VCCCVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • enflamme ← efnlamme · enfalmme · enfflamme · enflame · enflamem · enfllamme · enflmame · enlfamme

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "enflamme" for "enflammée" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "enflamme" is a verb and "enflammée" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "enflamme" vs "enflammée" - which ranks higher?
"enflamme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,930 in our French list, against #37,792 for "enflammée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "enflamme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "enflammée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #101,527 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "enflamme" and "enflammée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "enflammée vs enflamment". 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 #101,527 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