Which to use
“émail” is a noun and “était” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23,739
- “émail” frequency rank
- #64
- “était” frequency rank
- 23803
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | émail | était |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait du verbe être. |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set émail and était apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
émail and était form a confusable pair in the French index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23803, 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\. était is at rank #64, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.tɛ\.
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 23803, this pair ranks #350,361 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "émail" and "était" be used interchangeably?
Remembering émail vs était
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “émail”; for a verb, it's “était”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “émail” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable