emivsezTell them apart

Quick tell: emi is a verb, ez is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“emi” is a verb and “ez” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,474
“emi” frequency rank
#24,587
“ez” frequency rank
56061
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature emi ez
Definition Avoir envie (de). Dans les ; en les.

Letter map: emi vs ez

Shared letters muted; letters that set emi and ez apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
emi
2 ch
ez

Part-of-speech tell for emi / ez

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: emi is averb and ezapreposition. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56061, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

emi is recorded at frequency rank #31,474, classified as averb, pronounced \ˈe.mi\. ez is at rank #24,587, tagged as aprep.

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 56061, this pair ranks #123,469 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of emi vs ez

Shared letters: e. Private to "emi": im. Private to "ez": z.

"emi" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "ez" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "emi" and "ez" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "emi" is a verb and "ez" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "emi" or "ez"?
"ez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,587 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.

What to do next

Pair "emi" vs "ez" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "emi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #123,469 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "emi" and "ez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "emi vs émit". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #123,469 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