Which to use
“membre” is a noun and “mettre” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,034
- “membre” frequency rank
- #227
- “mettre” frequency rank
- 1261
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | membre | mettre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Partie extérieure du corps d’un être humain ou d’un animal, distinguée de toutes les autres par quelque fonction particulière. Note d’usage : Se dit principalement des bras et des jambes ; ne se dit jamais de la tête. | Placer une personne, ou un animal, ou une chose dans un lieu déterminé. |
Where the eye mixes membre and mettre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. membre and mettre follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses membre with mettre
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: membre is \mɑ̃bʁ\ while mettre is \mɛtʁ\. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1261, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
membre is recorded at frequency rank #1,034, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɑ̃bʁ\. mettre is at rank #227, tagged as averb, pronounced \mɛtʁ\.
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 1261, this pair ranks #438,339 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of membre vs mettre
Shared letters: emr. Private to "membre": b. Private to "mettre": t.
"membre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV · "mettre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "membre" and "mettre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "membre" vs "mettre" - 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 "membre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "mettre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #438,339 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "membre" and "mettre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "membre vs meutre". 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 #438,339 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.