émailvsemiConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#23,739
“émail” frequency rank
#31,474
“emi” frequency rank
55213
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature émail emi
Definition Matière fondante, composée de différents minéraux, laquelle, vitrifiée et plus ou moins opaque, peut recevoir différentes couleurs et être appliquée à l’aide du feu sur certains ouvrages d’or, d’argent, de cuivre, etc., pour les orner. Avoir envie (de).

Where the eye mixes émail and emi

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

5 ch
émail
3 ch
emi

Why the eye confuses émail with emi

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: émail is \e.maj\ while emi is \ˈe.mi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 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 55213, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

émail is recorded at frequency rank #23,739, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.maj\. emi is at rank #31,474, tagged as averb, pronounced \ˈe.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 55213, this pair ranks #128,929 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of émail vs emi

Shared letters: im. Private to "émail": alé. Private to "emi": e.

"émail" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC  ·  "emi" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "émail" for "emi" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "émail" is a noun and "emi" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "émail" vs "emi" - which ranks higher?
"émail" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,739 in our French list, against #31,474 for "emi". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "émail" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "emi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #128,929 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "émail" and "emi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "emi vs émit". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #128,929 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