émetvsemiWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#9,947
“émet” frequency rank
#31,474
“emi” frequency rank
41421
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature émet emi
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de émettre. Avoir envie (de).

Where the eye mixes émet and emi

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

4 ch
émet
3 ch
emi

Visual trap between émet and emi

A purely visual mix-up. émet (\e.mɛ\) and emi (\ˈe.mi\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41421, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

émet is recorded at frequency rank #9,947, classified as averb, pronounced \e.mɛ\. 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 41421, this pair ranks #233,239 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of émet vs emi

Shared letters: em. Private to "émet": . Private to "emi": i.

"émet" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "emi" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "émet" for "emi" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\e.mɛ\ versus \ˈe.mi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "émet" vs "emi" - which ranks higher?
"émet" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,947 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 "émet" 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 #233,239 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "émet" and "emi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "emi vs émit". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #233,239 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