incarnevsincarnerWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#8,254
“incarne” frequency rank
#14,057
“incarner” frequency rank
22311
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature incarne incarner
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de incarner. Donner une existence concrète à une valeur abstraite.

Where the eye mixes incarne and incarner

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. incarne runs 7 letters (VCCVCCV) against incarner's 8 (VCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
incarne
8 ch
incarner

Visual trap between incarne and incarner

A purely visual mix-up. incarne (\ɛ̃.kaʁn\) and incarner (\ɛ̃.kaʁ.ne\) 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 extra letter(s) - “incarne” sits inside “incarner”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22311, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

incarne is recorded at frequency rank #8,254, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.kaʁn\. incarner is at rank #14,057, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.kaʁ.ne\.

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 22311, this pair ranks #358,680 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of incarne vs incarner

Shared letters: aceinr. Private to "incarne": -. Private to "incarner": -.

"incarne" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV  ·  "incarner" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • incarne ← icnarne · inacrne · incanre · incaren · incarnne · incarrne · inccarne · incrane
  • incarner ← icnarner · inacrner · incanrer · incarenr · incarnerr · incarnner · incarnre · incarrner

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "incarne" and "incarner" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.kaʁn\ versus \ɛ̃.kaʁ.ne\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "incarne" or "incarner"?
"incarne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,254 in our French list, against #14,057 for "incarner". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "incarne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "incarner" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #358,680 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "incarne" and "incarner" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "incarner vs interner". 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 #358,680 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