émisvsêtesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#6,454
“émis” frequency rank
#362
“êtes” frequency rank
6816
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature émis êtes
Definition Participe passé masculin de émettre. Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de être.

Where the eye mixes émis and êtes

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

4 ch
émis
4 ch
êtes

Why the eye confuses émis with êtes

A purely visual mix-up. émis (\e.mi\) 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 6816, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

émis is recorded at frequency rank #6,454, classified as averb, pronounced \e.mi\. 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 6816, this pair ranks #425,132 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of émis vs êtes

Shared letters: s. Private to "émis": imé. Private to "êtes": etê.

"émis" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "êtes" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "émis" and "êtes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\e.mi\ versus \ɛt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "émis" vs "êtes" - which ranks higher?
"êtes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #362 in our French list, against #6,454 for "émis". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "émis" 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 #425,132 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "émis" and "êtes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "émis vs émit". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #425,132 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