ébranléevsébranlerWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: ébranlée is a adjective, ébranler is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ébranlée” is an adjective and “ébranler” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,610
“ébranlée” frequency rank
#33,084
“ébranler” frequency rank
71694
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ébranlée ébranler
Definition Féminin singulier de ébranlé. Amener par des secousses une chose à ne plus être dans sa position habituelle.

Same sound, different letters: ébranlée vs ébranler

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

8 ch
ébranlée
8 ch
ébranler

Ear matches; page differs - ébranlée and ébranler

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: ébranlée and ébranler carry the same recorded pronunciation, \e.bʁɑ̃.le\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71694, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ébranlée is recorded at frequency rank #38,610, classified as anadj, pronounced \e.bʁɑ̃.le\. ébranler is at rank #33,084, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.bʁɑ̃.le\.

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 71694, this pair ranks #46,657 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ébranlée vs ébranler

Shared letters: abelnré. Private to "ébranlée": -. Private to "ébranler": -.

"ébranlée" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVV  ·  "ébranler" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ébranlée" and "ébranler" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ébranlée" is an adjective and "ébranler" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ébranlée" or "ébranler"?
"ébranler" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,084 in our French list, against #38,610 for "ébranlée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "ébranlée" / "ébranler". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ébranlée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ébranler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #46,657 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ébranlée" and "ébranler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ébranle vs ébranlée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #46,657 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