flemmevsfleuveConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#10,327
“flemme” frequency rank
#3,679
“fleuve” frequency rank
14006
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature flemme fleuve
Definition Envie de ne rien faire. Cours d’eau qui se jette généralement dans la mer ou dans l’océan à son embouchure.

Where the eye mixes flemme and fleuve

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. flemme (CCVCCV) and fleuve (CCVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
flemme
6 ch
fleuve

Visual trap between flemme and fleuve

A purely visual mix-up. flemme (\flɛm\) and fleuve (\flœv\) 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 14006, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

flemme is recorded at frequency rank #10,327, classified as anoun, pronounced \flɛm\. fleuve is at rank #3,679, tagged as anoun, pronounced \flœv\.

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 14006, this pair ranks #398,606 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of flemme vs fleuve

Shared letters: efl. Private to "flemme": m. Private to "fleuve": uv.

"flemme" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "fleuve" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • flemme ← felmme · fflemme · fleme · flemem · fllemme · flmeme · lfemme
  • fleuve ← feluve · ffleuve · fleuev · fleuvve · flevue · flleuve · flueve · lfeuve

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "flemme" for "fleuve" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\flɛm\ versus \flœv\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "flemme" or "fleuve"?
"fleuve" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,679 in our French list, against #10,327 for "flemme". 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 "flemme" and "fleuve" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "flemme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fleuve" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #398,606 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "flemme" and "fleuve" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "flame vs flemme". 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 #398,606 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