étonnammentvsétonnementWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: étonnamment is a adverb, étonnement is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“étonnamment” is an adverb and “étonnement” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,789
“étonnamment” frequency rank
#16,044
“étonnement” frequency rank
32833
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature étonnamment étonnement
Definition D’une manière étonnante. Vive surprise.

Where the eye mixes étonnamment and étonnement

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. étonnamment runs 11 letters (VCVCCVCCVCC) against étonnement's 10 (VCVCCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

11 ch
étonnamment
10 ch
étonnement

Visual trap between étonnamment and étonnement

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: étonnamment is \e.tɔ.na.mɑ̃\ while étonnement is \e.tɔn.mɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32833, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

étonnamment is recorded at frequency rank #16,789, classified as anadv, pronounced \e.tɔ.na.mɑ̃\. étonnement is at rank #16,044, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.tɔn.mɑ̃\.

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 32833, this pair ranks #294,644 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of étonnamment vs étonnement

Shared letters: emnoté. Private to "étonnamment": a. Private to "étonnement": -.

"étonnamment" · 11 letters · shape VCVCCVCCVCC  ·  "étonnement" · 10 letters · shape VCVCCVCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "étonnamment" and "étonnement" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "étonnamment" is an adverb and "étonnement" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "étonnamment" or "étonnement" show up more?
"étonnement" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,044 in our French list, against #16,789 for "étonnamment". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "étonnamment" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "étonnement" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #294,644 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "étonnamment" and "étonnement" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "étonnement vs étonnent". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #294,644 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