enflammevsenflammerWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#21,930
“enflamme” frequency rank
#21,931
“enflammer” frequency rank
43861
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature enflamme enflammer
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de enflammer. Mettre en flamme.

Where the eye mixes enflamme and enflammer

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

8 ch
enflamme
9 ch
enflammer

Look-alike desk: enflamme vs enflammer

A purely visual mix-up. enflamme (\ɑ̃.flam\) and enflammer (\ɑ̃.fla.me\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “enflamme” sits inside “enflammer”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43861, 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\. enflammer is at rank #21,931, tagged as averb, 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 43861, this pair ranks #214,817 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of enflamme vs enflammer

Shared letters: aeflmn. Private to "enflamme": -. Private to "enflammer": r.

"enflamme" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVCCV  ·  "enflammer" · 9 letters · shape VCCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • enflamme ← efnlamme · enfalmme · enfflamme · enflame · enflamem · enfllamme · enflmame · enlfamme
  • enflammer ← efnlammer · enfalmmer · enfflammer · enflamemr · enflamer · enflammerr · enflammre · enfllammer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "enflamme" for "enflammer" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃.flam\ versus \ɑ̃.fla.me\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "enflamme" vs "enflammer" - which ranks higher?
"enflamme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,930 in our French list, against #21,931 for "enflammer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "enflamme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "enflammer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #214,817 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "enflamme" and "enflammer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "enflamment vs enflammer". 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 #214,817 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