enlevervsenlèvesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,672
“enlever” frequency rank
#26,352
“enlèves” frequency rank
29024
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature enlever enlèves
Definition Déplacer vers le haut. Deuxième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de enlever.

Where the eye mixes enlever and enlèves

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

7 ch
enlever
7 ch
enlèves

Why the eye confuses enlever with enlèves

A purely visual mix-up. enlever (\ɑ̃l.ve\) and enlèves (\ɑ̃.lɛv\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29024, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

enlever is recorded at frequency rank #2,672, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃l.ve\. enlèves is at rank #26,352, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.lɛv\.

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 29024, this pair ranks #319,212 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of enlever vs enlèves

Shared letters: elnv. Private to "enlever": r. Private to "enlèves": sè.

"enlever" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "enlèves" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • enlever ← elnever · enelver · enleevr · enleverr · enlevre · enlevver · enllever · enlveer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "enlever" and "enlèves" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃l.ve\ versus \ɑ̃.lɛv\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "enlever" or "enlèves" show up more?
"enlever" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,672 in our French list, against #26,352 for "enlèves". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "enlever" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "enlèves" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #319,212 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "enlever" and "enlèves" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "enleva vs enlèves". 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 #319,212 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