écrasévsembraseTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#9,255
“écrasé” frequency rank
#44,444
“embrase” frequency rank
53699
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature écrasé embrase
Definition Qui a subi un écrasement. Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de embraser.

Where the eye mixes écrasé and embrase

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. écrasé runs 6 letters (VCCVCV) against embrase's 7 (VCCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
écrasé
7 ch
embrase

Visual trap between écrasé and embrase

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: écrasé is \e.kʁa.ze\ while embrase is \ɑ̃.bʁaz\. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53699, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

écrasé is recorded at frequency rank #9,255, classified as anadj, pronounced \e.kʁa.ze\. embrase is at rank #44,444, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.bʁaz\.

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 53699, this pair ranks #138,990 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of écrasé vs embrase

Shared letters: ars. Private to "écrasé": cé. Private to "embrase": bem.

"écrasé" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "embrase" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • embrase ← ebmrase · embarse · embbrase · embraes · embrrase · embrsae · emmbrase · emrbase

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "écrasé" for "embrase" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "écrasé" is an adjective and "embrase" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "écrasé" or "embrase" show up more?
"écrasé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,255 in our French list, against #44,444 for "embrase". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "écrasé" and "embrase" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "écrasé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "embrase" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #138,990 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "écrasé" and "embrase" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "embrase vs embrassa". 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 #138,990 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