emballéevsemballerWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#35,013
“emballée” frequency rank
#21,303
“emballer” frequency rank
56316
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature emballée emballer
Definition Féminin singulier de emballé. Mettre en balle des objets en vue du transport.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set emballée and emballer apart are highlighted. They share 7 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

8 ch
emballée
8 ch
emballer

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: emballée and emballer carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ɑ̃.ba.le\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56316, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

emballée is recorded at frequency rank #35,013, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɑ̃.ba.le\. emballer is at rank #21,303, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.ba.le\.

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 56316, this pair ranks #121,841 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of emballée vs emballer

Shared letters: abelm. Private to "emballée": é. Private to "emballer": r.

"emballée" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVV  ·  "emballer" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • emballerebmaller · emabller · embalelr · embaler · emballerr · emballre · embballer · emblaler

Frequency comparison

emballée#35,013
emballer#21,303

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "emballée" and "emballer" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "emballée" is an adjective and "emballer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "emballée" or "emballer"?
"emballer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,303 in our French list, against #35,013 for "emballée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering emballée vs emballer

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “emballée”; for a verb, it's “emballer”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “emballée” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list