examinevsexaminéesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“examine” and “examinées” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#13,592
“examine” frequency rank
#31,484
“examinées” frequency rank
45076
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature examine examinées
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de examiner. Participe passé féminin pluriel de examiner.

Where the eye mixes examine and examinées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. examine runs 7 letters (VCVCVCV) against examinées's 9 (VCVCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
examine
9 ch
examinées

Why the eye confuses examine with examinées

A purely visual mix-up. examine (\ɛɡ.za.min\) and examinées (\ɛɡ.za.mi.ne\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45076, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

examine is recorded at frequency rank #13,592, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛɡ.za.min\. examinées is at rank #31,484, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛɡ.za.mi.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 45076, this pair ranks #205,602 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of examine vs examinées

Shared letters: aeimnx. Private to "examine": -. Private to "examinées": sé.

"examine" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVCV  ·  "examinées" · 9 letters · shape VCVCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • examine ← eaxmine · exaimne · examien · examinne · exammine · examnie · exmaine · exxamine

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "examine" and "examinées" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɛɡ.za.min\ versus \ɛɡ.za.mi.ne\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "examine" vs "examinées" - which ranks higher?
"examine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,592 in our French list, against #31,484 for "examinées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "examine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "examinées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #205,602 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "examine" and "examinées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "examinées vs examinez". 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 #205,602 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