Which to use
“mêlez” is a verb and “merle” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #38,936
- “mêlez” frequency rank
- #22,940
- “merle” frequency rank
- 61876
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | mêlez | merle |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de mêler. | Type de coloration de pelage chez le chien. Une robe merle est sombre avec des taches claires peu distinctes qui peuvent être associées à d’autres motifs comme certaines dilutions (couleurs foie) ou une couleur bringée. |
Where the eye mixes mêlez and merle
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. mêlez (CVCVC) and merle (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses mêlez with merle
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mêlez is \mɛ.le\ while merle is \mɛʁl\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61876, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
mêlez is recorded at frequency rank #38,936, classified as averb, pronounced \mɛ.le\. merle is at rank #22,940, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mɛʁl\.
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 61876, this pair ranks #89,975 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of mêlez vs merle
Shared letters: elm. Private to "mêlez": zê. Private to "merle": r.
"mêlez" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "merle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- merle ← emrle · melre · merel · merlle · merrle · mmerle · mrele
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "mêlez" for "merle" ever safe?
Frequency check: "mêlez" vs "merle" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "mêlez" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "merle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #89,975 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "mêlez" and "merle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Meier vs mêlez". 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 #89,975 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.