infimevsinflueWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: infime is a adjective, influe is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#17,164
“infime” frequency rank
#23,583
“influe” frequency rank
40747
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature infime influe
Definition Qui est placé le plus bas. Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de influer.

Where the eye mixes infime and influe

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

6 ch
infime
6 ch
influe

Why the eye confuses infime with influe

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: infime is \ɛ̃.fim\ while influe is \ɛ̃.fly\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40747, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

infime is recorded at frequency rank #17,164, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.fim\. influe is at rank #23,583, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.fly\.

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 40747, this pair ranks #238,198 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of infime vs influe

Shared letters: efin. Private to "infime": m. Private to "influe": lu.

"infime" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "influe" · 6 letters · shape VCCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • infime ← ifnime · inffime · infiem · infimme · infmie · inifme · innfime · nifime
  • influe ← ifnlue · infflue · infleu · infllue · infule · inlfue · innflue · niflue

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "infime" and "influe" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "infime" is an adjective and "influe" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "infime" or "influe" show up more?
"infime" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,164 in our French list, against #23,583 for "influe". 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 "infime" and "influe" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "infime" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "influe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #238,198 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "infime" and "influe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "influe vs infuse". 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 #238,198 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