envoisvsenvoyésTell them apart

Which to use

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

#13,588
“envois” frequency rank
#5,656
“envoyés” frequency rank
19244
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature envois envoyés
Definition Pluriel de envoi. Pluriel de envoyé.

Where the eye mixes envois and envoyés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. envois runs 6 letters (VCCVVC) against envoyés's 7 (VCCVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
envois
7 ch
envoyés

Visual trap between envois and envoyés

A purely visual mix-up. envois (\ɑ̃.vwa\) and envoyés (\ɑ̃.vwa.je\) 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 19244, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

envois is recorded at frequency rank #13,588, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.vwa\. envoyés is at rank #5,656, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.vwa.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 19244, this pair ranks #374,226 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of envois vs envoyés

Shared letters: enosv. Private to "envois": i. Private to "envoyés": yé.

"envois" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC  ·  "envoyés" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • envois ← ennvois · enovis · envios · envoiss · envosi · envvois · evnois · nevois

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "envois" for "envoyés" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃.vwa\ versus \ɑ̃.vwa.je\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "envois" or "envoyés" show up more?
"envoyés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,656 in our French list, against #13,588 for "envois". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "envois" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "envoyés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #374,226 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "envois" and "envoyés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "envois vs envoyais". 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 #374,226 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