Which to use
“ennuyé” is a noun and “essuyé” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23,197
- “ennuyé” frequency rank
- #24,580
- “essuyé” frequency rank
- 47777
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ennuyé | essuyé |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Personne qui a des ennuis. | Participe passé masculin singulier de essuyer. |
Where the eye mixes ennuyé and essuyé
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. ennuyé and essuyé follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: ennuyé vs essuyé
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ennuyé is \ɑ̃.nɥi.je\ while essuyé is \e.sɥi.je\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47777, 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\. essuyé is at rank #24,580, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.sɥi.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 47777, this pair ranks #184,237 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ennuyé vs essuyé
Shared letters: euyé. Private to "ennuyé": n. Private to "essuyé": s.
"ennuyé" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVV · "essuyé" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "ennuyé" and "essuyé" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "ennuyé" or "essuyé" show up more?
What to do next
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 "essuyé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #184,237 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ennuyé" and "essuyé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "essay vs essuyé". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #184,237 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.