Which to use
“empreinte” is a noun and “emprunté” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,081
- “empreinte” frequency rank
- #8,998
- “emprunté” frequency rank
- 15079
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | empreinte | emprunté |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Figure empreinte, impression, marque obtenue par pression. | Participe passé de emprunter. |
Where the eye mixes empreinte and emprunté
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. empreinte runs 9 letters (VCCCVVCCV) against emprunté's 8 (VCCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: empreinte vs emprunté
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: empreinte is \ɑ̃.pʁɛ̃t\ while emprunté is \ɑ̃.pʁœ̃.te\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15079, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
empreinte is recorded at frequency rank #6,081, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.pʁɛ̃t\. emprunté is at rank #8,998, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.pʁœ̃.te\.
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 15079, this pair ranks #393,953 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of empreinte vs emprunté
Shared letters: emnprt. Private to "empreinte": i. Private to "emprunté": ué.
"empreinte" · 9 letters · shape VCCCVVCCV · "emprunté" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- empreinte ← emmpreinte · emperinte · emppreinte · empreinet · empreinnte · empreintte · empreitne · emprenite
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "empreinte" for "emprunté" ever safe?
Frequency check: "empreinte" vs "emprunté" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "empreinte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "emprunté" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #393,953 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "empreinte" and "emprunté" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "empreinte vs empreints". 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 #393,953 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.