émetvsêtesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#9,947
“émet” frequency rank
#362
“êtes” frequency rank
10309
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature émet êtes
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de émettre. Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de être.

Where the eye mixes émet and êtes

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

4 ch
émet
4 ch
êtes

Look-alike desk: émet vs êtes

A purely visual mix-up. émet (\e.mɛ\) and êtes (\ɛt\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10309, 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\. êtes is at rank #362, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛt\.

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 10309, this pair ranks #413,454 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of émet vs êtes

Shared letters: et. Private to "émet": . Private to "êtes": .

"émet" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "êtes" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "émet" and "êtes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\e.mɛ\ versus \ɛt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "émet" or "êtes" show up more?
"êtes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #362 in our French list, against #9,947 for "émet". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "émet" and "êtes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "émet" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "êtes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #413,454 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "émet" and "êtes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "émet vs émit". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #413,454 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