Which to use
“enrayer” and “essayer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #22,845
- “enrayer” frequency rank
- #963
- “essayer” frequency rank
- 23808
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | enrayer | essayer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Arrêter une roue par les rais, ou au moyen d’un sabot, d’un frein ou d’une chaîne, en sorte qu’elle ne tourne point et qu’elle ne fasse que glisser. | Mettre à l’essai ; vérifier le bon fonctionnement. |
Where the eye mixes enrayer and essayer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. enrayer and essayer follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses enrayer with essayer
A purely visual mix-up. enrayer (\ɑ̃.ʁɛ.je\) and essayer (\e.se.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 23808, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
enrayer is recorded at frequency rank #22,845, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.ʁɛ.je\. essayer is at rank #963, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.se.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 23808, this pair ranks #350,339 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of enrayer vs essayer
Shared letters: aery. Private to "enrayer": n. Private to "essayer": s.
"enrayer" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVVC · "essayer" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "enrayer" and "essayer" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "enrayer" or "essayer"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "enrayer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "essayer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #350,339 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "enrayer" and "essayer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "enragés vs enrayer". 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 #350,339 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.