érablevsétabliConfusable pair

Quick tell: érable is a noun, établi is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“érable” is a noun and “établi” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,499
“érable” frequency rank
#2,805
“établi” frequency rank
16304
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature érable établi
Definition Genre d’arbre qui croît naturellement dans les régions tempérées à feuilles opposées, pétiolées et palmatilobées, généralement simples, dont le fruit est une disamare formée de 2 samares réunies à la base, et dont plusieurs espèces fournissent une liqueur qui peut être convertie en sucre par évaporation. Communément admis, ancré dans les mœurs.

Where the eye mixes érable and établi

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
érable
6 ch
établi

Why the eye confuses érable with établi

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: érable is \e.ʁabl\ while établi is \e.ta.bli\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16304, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

érable is recorded at frequency rank #13,499, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.ʁabl\. établi is at rank #2,805, tagged as anadj, pronounced \e.ta.bli\.

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 16304, this pair ranks #388,434 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of érable vs établi

Shared letters: ablé. Private to "érable": er. Private to "établi": it.

"érable" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV  ·  "établi" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "érable" for "établi" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "érable" is a noun and "établi" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "érable" or "établi"?
"établi" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,805 in our French list, against #13,499 for "érable". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "érable" and "établi" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "érable" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "établi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #388,434 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "érable" and "établi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "érable vs érables". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #388,434 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