Which to use
“empêchée” is an adjective and “empocher” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #29,758
- “empêchée” frequency rank
- #38,780
- “empocher” frequency rank
- 68538
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | empêchée | empocher |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de empêché. | Mettre en poche, en parlant surtout de l'argent ou de toute chose précieuse. |
Where the eye mixes empêchée and empocher
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. empêchée (VCCVCCVV) and empocher (VCCVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses empêchée with empocher
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: empêchée is \ɑ̃.pɛ.ʃe\ while empocher is \ɑ̃.pɔ.ʃe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68538, 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\. empocher is at rank #38,780, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.pɔ.ʃe\.
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 68538, this pair ranks #58,764 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of empêchée vs empocher
Shared letters: cehmp. Private to "empêchée": éê. Private to "empocher": or.
"empêchée" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVV · "empocher" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- empocher ← emmpocher · emopcher · empcoher · empoccher · empocehr · empocherr · empochher · empochre
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "empêchée" and "empocher" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "empêchée" or "empocher" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "empêchée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "empocher" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #58,764 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "empêchée" and "empocher" 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 #58,764 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.