emparevséparsConfusable pair

Quick tell: empare is a verb, épars is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#13,782
“empare” frequency rank
#36,217
“épars” frequency rank
49999
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature empare épars
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de emparer. Répandu de ci, de là.

Letter map: empare vs épars

Shared letters muted; letters that set empare and épars apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. empare runs 6 letters (VCCVCV) against épars's 5 (VCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
empare
5 ch
épars

Part-of-speech tell for empare / épars

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: empare is averb and éparsanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49999, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

empare is recorded at frequency rank #13,782, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.paʁ\. épars is at rank #36,217, tagged as anadj.

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 49999, this pair ranks #166,093 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of empare vs épars

Shared letters: apr. Private to "empare": em. Private to "épars": sé.

"empare" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "épars" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • empare ← emapre · emmpare · empaer · emppare · emprae · epmare · mepare

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "empare" and "épars" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "empare" is a verb and "épars" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "empare" or "épars" show up more?
"empare" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,782 in our French list, against #36,217 for "épars". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "empare" vs "épars" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "empare" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "épars" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #166,093 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "empare" and "épars" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "épars vs épaté". 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 #166,093 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