emprisonnéevsemprisonnerWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: emprisonnée is a adjective, emprisonner is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#28,933
“emprisonnée” frequency rank
#25,641
“emprisonner” frequency rank
54574
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature emprisonnée emprisonner
Definition Féminin singulier de emprisonné. Mettre en prison.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set emprisonnée and emprisonner apart are highlighted. They share 10 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

11 ch
emprisonnée
11 ch
emprisonner

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: emprisonnée and emprisonner carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ɑ̃.pʁi.zɔ.ne\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54574, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

emprisonnée is recorded at frequency rank #28,933, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɑ̃.pʁi.zɔ.ne\. emprisonner is at rank #25,641, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.pʁi.zɔ.ne\.

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 54574, this pair ranks #133,116 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of emprisonnée vs emprisonner

Shared letters: eimnoprs. Private to "emprisonnée": é. Private to "emprisonner": -.

"emprisonnée" · 11 letters · shape VCCCVCVCCVV  ·  "emprisonner" · 11 letters · shape VCCCVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • emprisonneremmprisonner · empirsonner · empprisonner · empriosnner · emprisnoner · emprisonenr · emprisoner · emprisonnerr

Frequency comparison

emprisonnée#28,933
emprisonner#25,641

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "emprisonnée" and "emprisonner" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "emprisonnée" is an adjective and "emprisonner" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "emprisonnée" or "emprisonner"?
"emprisonner" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,641 in our French list, against #28,933 for "emprisonnée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering emprisonnée vs emprisonner

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “emprisonnée”; for a verb, it's “emprisonner”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “emprisonnée” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list