enfoncévsenfoncerConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#18,737
“enfoncé” frequency rank
#10,496
“enfoncer” frequency rank
29233
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature enfoncé enfoncer
Definition Qui n’est pas au niveau du reste, qui forme cavité, ou un endroit profond. Mettre au fond, pousser vers le fond, faire pénétrer bien avant.

Same sound, different letters: enfoncé vs enfoncer

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. enfoncé runs 7 letters (VCCVCCV) against enfoncer's 8 (VCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
enfoncé
8 ch
enfoncer

Homophone desk: enfoncé vs enfoncer

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: enfoncé and enfoncer carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ɑ̃.fɔ̃.se\. 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 29233, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

enfoncé is recorded at frequency rank #18,737, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɑ̃.fɔ̃.se\. enfoncer is at rank #10,496, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.fɔ̃.se\.

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 29233, this pair ranks #317,933 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of enfoncé vs enfoncer

Shared letters: cefno. Private to "enfoncé": é. Private to "enfoncer": r.

"enfoncé" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV  ·  "enfoncer" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • enfoncer ← efnoncer · enffoncer · enfnocer · enfocner · enfonccer · enfoncerr · enfoncre · enfonecr

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "enfoncé" and "enfoncer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "enfoncé" is an adjective and "enfoncer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "enfoncé" vs "enfoncer" - which ranks higher?
"enfoncer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,496 in our French list, against #18,737 for "enfoncé". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "enfoncé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "enfoncer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #317,933 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "enfoncé" and "enfoncer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "enfoncé vs énoncée". 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 #317,933 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