Which to use
“exige” and “existe” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,858
- “exige” frequency rank
- #554
- “existe” frequency rank
- 5412
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | exige | existe |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de exiger. | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de exister. |
Where the eye mixes exige and existe
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses exige with existe
A purely visual mix-up. exige (\ɛɡ.ziʒ\) and existe (\ɛɡ.zist\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5412, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
exige is recorded at frequency rank #4,858, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛɡ.ziʒ\. existe is at rank #554, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛɡ.zist\.
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 5412, this pair ranks #429,075 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of exige vs existe
Shared letters: eix. Private to "exige": g. Private to "existe": st.
"exige" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV · "existe" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "exige" and "existe" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "exige" or "existe" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "exige" and "existe" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "exige" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "existe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #429,075 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "exige" and "existe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "exige vs exigez". 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 #429,075 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.