ennuyévsennuyeuxWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: ennuyé is a noun, ennuyeux is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#23,197
“ennuyé” frequency rank
#14,032
“ennuyeux” frequency rank
37229
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ennuyé ennuyeux
Definition Personne qui a des ennuis. Qui cause de l’ennui, de la lassitude.

Where the eye mixes ennuyé and ennuyeux

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. ennuyé runs 6 letters (VCCVVV) against ennuyeux's 8 (VCCVVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
ennuyé
8 ch
ennuyeux

Look-alike desk: ennuyé vs ennuyeux

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ennuyé is \ɑ̃.nɥi.je\ while ennuyeux is \ɑ̃.nɥi.jø\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37229, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ennuyé is recorded at frequency rank #23,197, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.nɥi.je\. ennuyeux is at rank #14,032, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɑ̃.nɥi.jø\.

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 37229, this pair ranks #263,979 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ennuyé vs ennuyeux

Shared letters: enuy. Private to "ennuyé": é. Private to "ennuyeux": x.

"ennuyé" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVV  ·  "ennuyeux" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ennuyeux ← ennueyux · ennuyeuxx · ennuyexu · ennuyuex · ennuyyeux · ennyueux · enunyeux · enuyeux

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ennuyé" and "ennuyeux" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ennuyé" is a noun and "ennuyeux" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ennuyé" vs "ennuyeux" - which ranks higher?
"ennuyeux" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,032 in our French list, against #23,197 for "ennuyé". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ennuyé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ennuyeux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #263,979 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ennuyé" and "ennuyeux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ennuyé vs ennuyée". 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 #263,979 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