influevsinfluerWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#23,583
“influe” frequency rank
#20,468
“influer” frequency rank
44051
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature influe influer
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de influer. Faire impression sur une chose, exercer sur elle une action qui tend à la modifier.

Where the eye mixes influe and influer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

6 ch
influe
7 ch
influer

Look-alike desk: influe vs influer

A purely visual mix-up. influe (\ɛ̃.fly\) and influer (\ɛ̃.fly.e\) 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 extra letter(s) - “influe” sits inside “influer”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44051, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

influe is recorded at frequency rank #23,583, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.fly\. influer is at rank #20,468, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛ̃.fly.e\.

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 44051, this pair ranks #213,414 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of influe vs influer

Shared letters: efilnu. Private to "influe": -. Private to "influer": r.

"influe" · 6 letters · shape VCCCVV  ·  "influer" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • influeifnlue · infflue · infleu · infllue · infule · inlfue · innflue · niflue
  • influerifnluer · inffluer · infleur · inflluer · influerr · influre · infuler · inlfuer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "influe" for "influer" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.fly\ versus \ɛ̃.fly.e\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "influe" vs "influer" - which ranks higher?
"influer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,468 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "influe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "influer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #213,414 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "influe" and "influer" 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 #213,414 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