enquêtervsenquêteursTell them apart

Quick tell: enquêter is a verb, enquêteurs is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“enquêter” is a verb and “enquêteurs” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,995
“enquêter” frequency rank
#10,497
“enquêteurs” frequency rank
20492
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature enquêter enquêteurs
Definition Faire une enquête. Pluriel de enquêteur.

Where the eye mixes enquêter and enquêteurs

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. enquêter runs 8 letters (VCCVVCVC) against enquêteurs's 10 (VCCVVCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
enquêter
10 ch
enquêteurs

Look-alike desk: enquêter vs enquêteurs

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: enquêter is \ɑ̃.ke.te\ while enquêteurs is \ɑ̃.kɛ.tœʁ\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20492, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

enquêter is recorded at frequency rank #9,995, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.ke.te\. enquêteurs is at rank #10,497, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.kɛ.tœʁ\.

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 20492, this pair ranks #368,010 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of enquêter vs enquêteurs

Shared letters: enqrtuê. Private to "enquêter": -. Private to "enquêteurs": s.

"enquêter" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCVC  ·  "enquêteurs" · 10 letters · shape VCCVVCVVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "enquêter" and "enquêteurs" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "enquêter" is a verb and "enquêteurs" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "enquêter" or "enquêteurs" show up more?
"enquêter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,995 in our French list, against #10,497 for "enquêteurs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "enquêter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "enquêteurs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #368,010 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "enquêter" and "enquêteurs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "enquérir vs enquêter". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #368,010 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