infligevsinflueTell them apart

Which to use

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

#25,012
“inflige” frequency rank
#23,583
“influe” frequency rank
48595
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature inflige influe
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de infliger. Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de influer.

Where the eye mixes inflige and influe

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
inflige
6 ch
influe

Why the eye confuses inflige with influe

A purely visual mix-up. inflige (\ɛ̃.fliʒ\) and influe (\ɛ̃.fly\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48595, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

inflige is recorded at frequency rank #25,012, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.fliʒ\. 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 48595, this pair ranks #177,640 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of inflige vs influe

Shared letters: efiln. Private to "inflige": g. Private to "influe": u.

"inflige" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVCV  ·  "influe" · 6 letters · shape VCCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • infligeifnlige · infflige · infilge · inflgie · inflieg · infligge · infllige · inlfige
  • influeifnlue · infflue · infleu · infllue · infule · inlfue · innflue · niflue

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "inflige" for "influe" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.fliʒ\ versus \ɛ̃.fly\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "inflige" or "influe" show up more?
"influe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,583 in our French list, against #25,012 for "inflige". 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 "inflige" 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 #177,640 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "inflige" and "influe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "inflige vs infligent". 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 #177,640 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