envisagevsenvisagerWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#7,056
“envisage” frequency rank
#5,342
“envisager” frequency rank
12398
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature envisage envisager
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de envisager. Regarder une personne au visage.

Where the eye mixes envisage and envisager

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. envisage runs 8 letters (VCCVCVCV) against envisager's 9 (VCCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
envisage
9 ch
envisager

Visual trap between envisage and envisager

A purely visual mix-up. envisage (\ɑ̃.vi.zaʒ\) and envisager (\ɑ̃.vi.za.ʒe\) 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 extra letter(s) - “envisage” sits inside “envisager”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12398, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

envisage is recorded at frequency rank #7,056, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.vi.zaʒ\. envisager is at rank #5,342, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.vi.za.ʒe\.

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 12398, this pair ranks #405,418 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of envisage vs envisager

Shared letters: aeginsv. Private to "envisage": -. Private to "envisager": r.

"envisage" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV  ·  "envisager" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • envisage ← enivsage · ennvisage · enviasge · envisaeg · envisagge · envisgae · envissage · envsiage
  • envisager ← enivsager · ennvisager · enviasger · envisaegr · envisagerr · envisagger · envisagre · envisgaer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "envisage" for "envisager" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃.vi.zaʒ\ versus \ɑ̃.vi.za.ʒe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "envisage" vs "envisager" - which ranks higher?
"envisager" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,342 in our French list, against #7,056 for "envisage". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "envisage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "envisager" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #405,418 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "envisage" and "envisager" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "envisage vs envisagez". 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 #405,418 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