ennuyévsenvoyéWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#23,197
“ennuyé” frequency rank
#1,411
“envoyé” frequency rank
24608
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ennuyé envoyé
Definition Personne qui a des ennuis. Personne qui est envoyée quelque part par quelqu’un.

Where the eye mixes ennuyé and envoyé

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. ennuyé and envoyé follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
ennuyé
6 ch
envoyé

Look-alike desk: ennuyé vs envoyé

A purely visual mix-up. ennuyé (\ɑ̃.nɥi.je\) and envoyé (\ɑ̃.vwa.je\) 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 24608, 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\. envoyé is at rank #1,411, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.vwa.je\.

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 24608, this pair ranks #345,636 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ennuyé vs envoyé

Shared letters: enyé. Private to "ennuyé": u. Private to "envoyé": ov.

"ennuyé" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVV  ·  "envoyé" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ennuyé" for "envoyé" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃.nɥi.je\ versus \ɑ̃.vwa.je\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "ennuyé" vs "envoyé" - which ranks higher?
"envoyé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,411 in our French list, against #23,197 for "ennuyé". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ennuyé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "envoyé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #345,636 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ennuyé" and "envoyé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ennuyé vs ennuyée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #345,636 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