enrôlervsenvolerWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#31,479
“enrôler” frequency rank
#14,033
“envoler” frequency rank
45512
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature enrôler envoler
Definition Inscrire sur les rôles de l’armée de terre ou de mer. (Utilisé uniquement dans s’envoler) Voler ailleurs.

Where the eye mixes enrôler and envoler

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. enrôler and envoler follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
enrôler
7 ch
envoler

Visual trap between enrôler and envoler

A purely visual mix-up. enrôler (\ɑ̃.ʁɔ.le\) and envoler (\ɑ̃.vɔ.le\) 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 45512, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

enrôler is recorded at frequency rank #31,479, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.ʁɔ.le\. envoler is at rank #14,033, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.vɔ.le\.

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 45512, this pair ranks #202,199 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of enrôler vs envoler

Shared letters: elnr. Private to "enrôler": ô. Private to "envoler": ov.

"enrôler" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "envoler" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • envoler ← ennvoler · enovler · envloer · envoelr · envolerr · envoller · envolre · envvoler

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "enrôler" and "envoler" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃.ʁɔ.le\ versus \ɑ̃.vɔ.le\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "enrôler" vs "envoler" - which ranks higher?
"envoler" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,033 in our French list, against #31,479 for "enrôler". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "enrôler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "envoler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #202,199 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "enrôler" and "envoler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "enrôler vs enrôlés". 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 #202,199 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