enfouivsenfuieWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#27,424
“enfoui” frequency rank
#38,275
“enfuie” frequency rank
65699
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature enfoui enfuie
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier du verbe enfouir. Participe passé féminin singulier de enfuir.

Where the eye mixes enfoui and enfuie

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. enfoui and enfuie follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
enfoui
6 ch
enfuie

Why the eye confuses enfoui with enfuie

A purely visual mix-up. enfoui (\ɑ̃.fwi\) and enfuie (\ɑ̃.fɥi\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65699, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

enfoui is recorded at frequency rank #27,424, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.fwi\. enfuie is at rank #38,275, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.fɥi\.

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 65699, this pair ranks #71,144 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of enfoui vs enfuie

Shared letters: efinu. Private to "enfoui": o. Private to "enfuie": -.

"enfoui" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVV  ·  "enfuie" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • enfoui ← efnoui · enffoui · enfoiu · enfuoi · ennfoui · enofui · nefoui
  • enfuie ← efnuie · enffuie · enfiue · enfuei · ennfuie · enufie · nefuie

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "enfoui" and "enfuie" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃.fwi\ versus \ɑ̃.fɥi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "enfoui" vs "enfuie" - which ranks higher?
"enfoui" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,424 in our French list, against #38,275 for "enfuie". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "enfoui" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "enfuie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,144 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "enfoui" and "enfuie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "enfouies vs enfuie". 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 #71,144 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