gonflervsgonflésWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: gonfler is a verb, gonflés is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“gonfler” is a verb and “gonflés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,803
“gonfler” frequency rank
#27,082
“gonflés” frequency rank
40885
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gonfler gonflés
Definition Augmenter quelque chose de volume en la remplissant de gaz ou d’un fluide ; faire saillir. Masculin pluriel de gonflé.

Same sound, different letters: gonfler vs gonflés

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.

7 ch
gonfler
7 ch
gonflés

Same sound, different spelling - gonfler / gonflés

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: gonfler and gonflés carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ɡɔ̃.fle\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40885, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gonfler is recorded at frequency rank #13,803, classified as averb, pronounced \ɡɔ̃.fle\. gonflés is at rank #27,082, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɡɔ̃.fle\.

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 40885, this pair ranks #237,180 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gonfler vs gonflés

Shared letters: fglno. Private to "gonfler": er. Private to "gonflés": .

"gonfler" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC  ·  "gonflés" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gonflerggonfler · gnofler · gofnler · gonfelr · gonffler · gonflerr · gonfller · gonflre

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gonfler" for "gonflés" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "gonfler" is a verb and "gonflés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "gonfler" or "gonflés" show up more?
"gonfler" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,803 in our French list, against #27,082 for "gonflés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gonfler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gonflés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #237,180 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gonfler" and "gonflés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gonflées vs gonflés". 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 #237,180 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