infirmervsinforméeConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#30,217
“infirmer” frequency rank
#16,914
“informée” frequency rank
47131
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature infirmer informée
Definition Affaiblir, diminuer, ôter la force, la valeur d’une chose. Participe passé féminin singulier de informer.

Where the eye mixes infirmer and informée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. infirmer (VCCVCCVC) and informée (VCCVCCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
infirmer
8 ch
informée

Visual trap between infirmer and informée

A purely visual mix-up. infirmer (\ɛ̃.fiʁ.me\) and informée (\ɛ̃.fɔʁ.me\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47131, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

infirmer is recorded at frequency rank #30,217, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.fiʁ.me\. informée is at rank #16,914, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.fɔʁ.me\.

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 47131, this pair ranks #189,327 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of infirmer vs informée

Shared letters: efimnr. Private to "infirmer": -. Private to "informée": oé.

"infirmer" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC  ·  "informée" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • infirmer ← ifnirmer · inffirmer · infimrer · infiremr · infirmerr · infirmmer · infirmre · infirrmer

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "infirmer" and "informée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.fiʁ.me\ versus \ɛ̃.fɔʁ.me\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "infirmer" vs "informée" - which ranks higher?
"informée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,914 in our French list, against #30,217 for "infirmer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "infirmer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "informée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #189,327 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "infirmer" and "informée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "infimes vs infirmer". 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 #189,327 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