Which to use
“ébène” is a noun and “eine” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,435
- “ébène” frequency rank
- #32,798
- “eine” frequency rank
- 63233
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ébène | eine |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nom habituellement donné au bois de divers arbres de la famille des Ebenaceae (Ébénacées) du genre Diospyros nommés ébénier et certains plaqueminiers au bois sombre. On trouve aussi un arbre de la famille des Fabaceae (Fabacées) le Dalbergia melanoxylon ou ébène du Mozambique. Ce sont des bois gris foncé, sombres, noirs, parfois veinés , d’un grain fin et d’une grande dureté, aujourd'hui principalement utilisés dans la fabrication d'objets décoratifs ou usuels de petite dimension. | Féminin (accusatif ou nominatif) de ein. |
Where the eye mixes ébène and eine
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses ébène with eine
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ébène is \e.bɛn\ while eine is \ˈaɪ̯.nə\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs article), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63233, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ébène is recorded at frequency rank #30,435, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.bɛn\. eine is at rank #32,798, tagged as anarticle, pronounced \ˈaɪ̯.nə\.
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 63233, this pair ranks #83,057 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ébène vs eine
Shared letters: en. Private to "ébène": bèé. Private to "eine": i.
"ébène" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV · "eine" · 4 letters · shape VVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- eine ← eien · einne · enie · iene
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "ébène" and "eine" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "ébène" or "eine" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "ébène" and "eine" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "ébène" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "eine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #83,057 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ébène" and "eine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "eine vs einer". 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 #83,057 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.