infligéevsinfligerWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#27,485
“infligée” frequency rank
#15,908
“infliger” frequency rank
43393
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature infligée infliger
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de infliger. Frapper quelqu’un d’une peine pour une transgression, une faute, un délit ou un crime.

Same sound, different letters: infligée vs infliger

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. infligée (VCCCVCVV) and infliger (VCCCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
infligée
8 ch
infliger

Ear matches; page differs - infligée and infliger

This is the hard kind. infligée and infliger are pronounced identically (\ɛ̃.fli.ʒe\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43393, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

infligée is recorded at frequency rank #27,485, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.fli.ʒe\. 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 43393, this pair ranks #218,388 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of infligée vs infliger

Shared letters: efgiln. Private to "infligée": é. Private to "infliger": r.

"infligée" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVCVV  ·  "infliger" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • infliger ← ifnliger · inffliger · infilger · inflgier · infliegr · infligerr · infligger · infligre

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "infligée" and "infliger" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ɛ̃.fli.ʒe\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "infligée" vs "infliger" - which ranks higher?
"infliger" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,908 in our French list, against #27,485 for "infligée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "infligée" 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 #218,388 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "infligée" and "infliger" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "infligée 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 #218,388 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