inclinervsinfligerWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#18,778
“incliner” frequency rank
#15,908
“infliger” frequency rank
34686
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature incliner infliger
Definition Mettre dans une situation oblique, par rapport au plan de l’horizon. Frapper quelqu’un d’une peine pour une transgression, une faute, un délit ou un crime.

Where the eye mixes incliner and infliger

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. incliner and infliger follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
incliner
8 ch
infliger

Visual trap between incliner and infliger

A purely visual mix-up. incliner (\ɛ̃.kli.ne\) and infliger (\ɛ̃.fli.ʒe\) 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 34686, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

incliner is recorded at frequency rank #18,778, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.kli.ne\. infliger is at rank #15,908, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.fli.ʒe\.

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 34686, this pair ranks #282,105 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of incliner vs infliger

Shared letters: eilnr. Private to "incliner": c. Private to "infliger": fg.

"incliner" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVCVC  ·  "infliger" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • incliner ← icnliner · inccliner · incilner · inclienr · inclinerr · inclinner · inclinre · inclliner
  • infliger ← ifnliger · inffliger · infilger · inflgier · infliegr · infligerr · infligger · infligre

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "incliner" for "infliger" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.kli.ne\ versus \ɛ̃.fli.ʒe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "incliner" or "infliger"?
"infliger" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,908 in our French list, against #18,778 for "incliner". 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 "incliner" and "infliger" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "incliner" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "infliger" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #282,105 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "incliner" and "infliger" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "infligent vs infliger". 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 #282,105 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