élusvsémisWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#1,983
“élus” frequency rank
#6,454
“émis” frequency rank
8437
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature élus émis
Definition Masculin pluriel de élu. Participe passé masculin de émettre.

Where the eye mixes élus and émis

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

4 ch
élus
4 ch
émis

Why the eye confuses élus with émis

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: élus is \e.ly\ while émis is \e.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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8437, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

élus is recorded at frequency rank #1,983, classified as anadj, pronounced \e.ly\. émis is at rank #6,454, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.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 8437, this pair ranks #420,034 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of élus vs émis

Shared letters: . Private to "élus": lu. Private to "émis": im.

"élus" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "émis" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "élus" and "émis" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "élus" is an adjective and "émis" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "élus" or "émis"?
"élus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,983 in our French list, against #6,454 for "émis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "élus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "émis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #420,034 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "élus" and "émis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "émis vs émit". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #420,034 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