effetvsémetWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: effet is a noun, émet is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“effet” is a noun and “émet” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#270
“effet” frequency rank
#9,947
“émet” frequency rank
10217
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature effet émet
Definition Ce qui est produit par quelque cause. Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de émettre.

Where the eye mixes effet and émet

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

5 ch
effet
4 ch
émet

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: effet is \e.fɛ\ while émet is \e.mɛ\. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10217, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

effet is recorded at frequency rank #270, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.fɛ\. émet is at rank #9,947, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.mɛ\.

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 10217, this pair ranks #413,793 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of effet vs émet

Shared letters: et. Private to "effet": f. Private to "émet": .

"effet" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "émet" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • effetefeft · efet · effett · effte · fefet

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "effet" and "émet" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "effet" is a noun and "émet" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "effet" or "émet"?
"effet" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #270 in our French list, against #9,947 for "émet". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "effet" and "émet". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "effet" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "émet" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #413,793 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "effet" and "émet" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "émet vs émit". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list