Which to use
“emmerdé” is an adjective and “emmerder” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46,741
- “emmerdé” frequency rank
- #15,616
- “emmerder” frequency rank
- 62357
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | emmerdé | emmerder |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Embêté, embarrassé. | Souiller d’excréments. |
Same sound, different letters: emmerdé vs emmerder
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. emmerdé runs 7 letters (VCCVCCV) against emmerder's 8 (VCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: emmerdé vs emmerder
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: emmerdé and emmerder carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ɑ̃.mɛʁ.de\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62357, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
emmerdé is recorded at frequency rank #46,741, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɑ̃.mɛʁ.de\. emmerder is at rank #15,616, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.mɛʁ.de\.
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 62357, this pair ranks #87,565 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of emmerdé vs emmerder
Shared letters: demr. Private to "emmerdé": é. Private to "emmerder": -.
"emmerdé" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV · "emmerder" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- emmerder ← ememrder · emerder · emmedrer · emmerdder · emmerderr · emmerdre · emmeredr · emmerrder
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "emmerdé" for "emmerder" ever safe?
Frequency check: "emmerdé" vs "emmerder" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "emmerdé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "emmerder" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #87,565 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "emmerdé" and "emmerder" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "emmerdé vs emmerdent". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #87,565 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.