envivsenvoiWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#19,828
“envi” frequency rank
#3,252
“envoi” frequency rank
23080
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature envi envoi
Definition Argent qu’on mise, pour surenchérir sur un adversaire lors d’un jeu. Action d’envoyer.

Where the eye mixes envi and envoi

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. envi runs 4 letters (VCCV) against envoi's 5 (VCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
envi
5 ch
envoi

Why the eye confuses envi with envoi

A purely visual mix-up. envi (\ɑ̃.vi\) and envoi (\ɑ̃.vwa\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23080, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

envi is recorded at frequency rank #19,828, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.vi\. envoi is at rank #3,252, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.vwa\.

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 23080, this pair ranks #354,491 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of envi vs envoi

Shared letters: einv. Private to "envi": -. Private to "envoi": o.

"envi" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "envoi" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • envi ← eniv · ennvi · envvi · evni · nevi
  • envoi ← ennvoi · enovi · envio · envvoi · evnoi · nevoi

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "envi" for "envoi" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃.vi\ versus \ɑ̃.vwa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "envi" or "envoi"?
"envoi" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,252 in our French list, against #19,828 for "envi". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "envi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "envoi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #354,491 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "envi" and "envoi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "envi vs étai". 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 #354,491 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