Which to use
“empêchée” is an adjective and “empoche” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #29,758
- “empêchée” frequency rank
- #43,408
- “empoche” frequency rank
- 73166
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | empêchée | empoche |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de empêché. | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de empocher. |
Where the eye mixes empêchée and empoche
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. empêchée runs 8 letters (VCCVCCVV) against empoche's 7 (VCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between empêchée and empoche
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: empêchée is \ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃe\ while empoche is \ɑ̃.pɔʃ\. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73166, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
empêchée is recorded at frequency rank #29,758, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃe\. empoche is at rank #43,408, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.pɔʃ\.
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 73166, this pair ranks #41,387 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of empêchée vs empoche
Shared letters: cehmp. Private to "empêchée": éê. Private to "empoche": o.
"empêchée" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVV · "empoche" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- empoche ← emmpoche · emopche · empcohe · empocche · empoceh · empochhe · empohce · emppoche
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "empêchée" for "empoche" ever safe?
Frequency check: "empêchée" vs "empoche" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "empêchée" and "empoche" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "empêchée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "empoche" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #41,387 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "empêchée" and "empoche" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "empoche vs empocher". 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 #41,387 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.