envoievsenvoyaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,736
“envoie” frequency rank
#16,610
“envoya” frequency rank
18346
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature envoie envoya
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de envoyer. Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de envoyer.

Where the eye mixes envoie and envoya

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. envoie and envoya follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
envoie
6 ch
envoya

Why the eye confuses envoie with envoya

A purely visual mix-up. envoie (\ɑ̃.vwa\) and envoya (\ɑ̃.vwa.ja\) 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 18346, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

envoie is recorded at frequency rank #1,736, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.vwa\. envoya is at rank #16,610, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.vwa.ja\.

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 18346, this pair ranks #378,799 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of envoie vs envoya

Shared letters: enov. Private to "envoie": i. Private to "envoya": ay.

"envoie" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVV  ·  "envoya" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • envoie ← ennvoie · enovie · envioe · envoei · envvoie · evnoie · nevoie
  • envoya ← ennvoya · enovya · envoay · envoyya · envvoya · envyoa · evnoya · nevoya

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "envoie" and "envoya" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃.vwa\ versus \ɑ̃.vwa.ja\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "envoie" or "envoya"?
"envoie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,736 in our French list, against #16,610 for "envoya". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "envoie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "envoya" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #378,799 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "envoie" and "envoya" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Enora vs envoya". 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 #378,799 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