émit vs ému, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“émit” is a verb and “ému” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,446
“émit” frequency rank: #10,978
“ému” frequency rank: 60424
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	émit	ému
Definition	Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de émettre.	En proie à une émotion plus ou moins vive.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set émit and ému apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

émit

3 ch

ému

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: émit is \e.mi\ while ému is \e.my\. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60424, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

émit is recorded at frequency rank #49,446, classified as averb, pronounced \e.mi\. ému is at rank #10,978, tagged as anadj, pronounced \e.my\.

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 60424, this pair ranks #97,660 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of émit vs ému

Shared letters: mé. Private to "émit": it. Private to "ému": u.

"émit" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "ému" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequency comparison

émit#49,446

ému#10,978

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "émit" and "ému" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "émit" is a verb and "ému" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "émit" or "ému"?

"ému" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,978 in our French list, against #49,446 for "émit". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering émit vs ému

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “émit”; for an adjective, it's “ému”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “émit” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable