embêtevsémetWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“embête” and “émet” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#17,944
“embête” frequency rank
#9,947
“émet” frequency rank
27891
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature embête émet
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de embêter. Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de émettre.

Where the eye mixes embête and émet

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. embête runs 6 letters (VCCVCV) against émet's 4 (VCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
embête
4 ch
émet

Look-alike desk: embête vs émet

A purely visual mix-up. embête (\ɑ̃.bɛt\) and émet (\e.mɛ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27891, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

embête is recorded at frequency rank #17,944, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.bɛt\. 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 27891, this pair ranks #326,125 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of embête vs émet

Shared letters: emt. Private to "embête": bê. Private to "émet": é.

"embête" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "émet" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "embête" and "émet" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃.bɛt\ versus \e.mɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "embête" vs "émet" - which ranks higher?
"émet" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,947 in our French list, against #17,944 for "embête". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "embête" 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 #326,125 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "embête" and "émet" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "embête vs entêté". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #326,125 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