émisevsépineWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: émise is a verb, épine is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“émise” is a verb and “épine” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,787
“émise” frequency rank
#20,328
“épine” frequency rank
37115
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature émise épine
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de émettre. Branche, feuille, stipule ou partie de feuille transformée en un organe allongé et piquant ; par opposition à l’aiguillon.

Where the eye mixes émise and épine

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
émise
5 ch
épine

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: émise is \e.miz\ while épine is \e.pin\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37115, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

émise is recorded at frequency rank #16,787, classified as averb, pronounced \e.miz\. épine is at rank #20,328, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.pin\.

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 37115, this pair ranks #264,798 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of émise vs épine

Shared letters: eié. Private to "émise": ms. Private to "épine": np.

"émise" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "épine" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "émise" and "épine" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "émise" is a verb and "épine" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "émise" or "épine"?
"émise" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,787 in our French list, against #20,328 for "épine". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list