Which to use
“étire” is a noun and “exige” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #26,236
- “étire” frequency rank
- #4,858
- “exige” frequency rank
- 31094
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | étire | exige |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | lame métallique (anciennement en pierre) montée sur un manche sur le côté le plus long et qui servait à pratiquer le butage. | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de exiger. |
Where the eye mixes étire and exige
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. étire and exige follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses étire with exige
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: étire is \e.tiʁ\ while exige is \ɛɡ.ziʒ\. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31094, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
étire is recorded at frequency rank #26,236, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.tiʁ\. exige is at rank #4,858, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛɡ.ziʒ\.
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 31094, this pair ranks #306,020 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of étire vs exige
Shared letters: ei. Private to "étire": rté. Private to "exige": gx.
"étire" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV · "exige" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- exige ← eixge · exgie · exieg · exigge · exxige · xeige
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "étire" and "exige" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "étire" vs "exige" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "étire" and "exige" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "étire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "exige" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #306,020 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "étire" and "exige" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Erdre vs étire". 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 #306,020 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.