enflévsenvieWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: enflé is a adjective, envie is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“enflé” is an adjective and “envie” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,318
“enflé” frequency rank
#527
“envie” frequency rank
42845
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature enflé envie
Definition Qui est soumis à une enflure. Chagrin ou haine que l’on ressent du bonheur, des succès, des avantages d’autrui.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set enflé and envie apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
enflé
5 ch
envie

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: enflé is \ɑ̃.fle\ while envie is \ɑ̃.vi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42845, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

enflé is recorded at frequency rank #42,318, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɑ̃.fle\. envie is at rank #527, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.vi\.

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 42845, this pair ranks #222,503 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of enflé vs envie

Shared letters: en. Private to "enflé": flé. Private to "envie": iv.

"enflé" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV  ·  "envie" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • envieenive · ennvie · envei · envvie · evnie · nevie

Frequency comparison

enflé#42,318
envie#527

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "enflé" and "envie" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "enflé" is an adjective and "envie" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "enflé" or "envie"?
"envie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #527 in our French list, against #42,318 for "enflé". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering enflé vs envie

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “enflé”; for a noun, it's “envie”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “enflé” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list