Which to use
“émigré” is an adjective and “émise” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #21,212
- “émigré” frequency rank
- #16,787
- “émise” frequency rank
- 37999
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | émigré | émise |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui a quitté son pays. | Participe passé féminin singulier de émettre. |
Where the eye mixes émigré and émise
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. émigré runs 6 letters (VCVCCV) against émise's 5 (VCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses émigré with émise
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: émigré is \e.mi.ɡʁe\ while émise is \e.miz\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37999, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
émigré is recorded at frequency rank #21,212, classified as anadj, pronounced \e.mi.ɡʁe\. émise is at rank #16,787, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.miz\.
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 37999, this pair ranks #258,435 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of émigré vs émise
Shared letters: imé. Private to "émigré": gr. Private to "émise": es.
"émigré" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV · "émise" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "émigré" and "émise" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "émigré" or "émise" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "émigré" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "émise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #258,435 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "émigré" and "émise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "émise vs émit". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #258,435 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.