amervsamisWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: amer is a adjective, amis is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“amer” is an adjective and “amis” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,629
“amer” frequency rank
#444
“amis” frequency rank
11073
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature amer amis
Definition Qui a une saveur âpre et généralement désagréable, comme celle de la quinine ou du café. Pluriel de ami.

Where the eye mixes amer and amis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
amer
4 ch
amis

Look-alike desk: amer vs amis

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: amer is \a.mɛʁ\ while amis is \a.mi\. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11073, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

amer is recorded at frequency rank #10,629, classified as anadj, pronounced \a.mɛʁ\. amis is at rank #444, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.mi\.

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 11073, this pair ranks #410,553 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of amer vs amis

Shared letters: am. Private to "amer": er. Private to "amis": is.

"amer" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "amis" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ameraemr · amerr · ammer · amre · maer
  • amisaims · amiss · ammis · amsi · mais

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "amer" and "amis" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "amer" is an adjective and "amis" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "amer" vs "amis" - which ranks higher?
"amis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #444 in our French list, against #10,629 for "amer". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "amer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "amis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #410,553 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "amer" and "amis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "amer vs avéra". 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 #410,553 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