Which to use
“obéis” and “osais” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #40,893
- “obéis” frequency rank
- #27,898
- “osais” frequency rank
- 68791
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | obéis | osais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de obéir. | Première personne du singulier de l’imparfait de l’indicatif de oser. |
Where the eye mixes obéis and osais
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. obéis and osais follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between obéis and osais
A purely visual mix-up. obéis (\ɔ.be.i\) and osais (\o.zɛ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68791, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
obéis is recorded at frequency rank #40,893, classified as averb, pronounced \ɔ.be.i\. osais is at rank #27,898, tagged as averb, pronounced \o.zɛ\.
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 68791, this pair ranks #57,689 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of obéis vs osais
Shared letters: ios. Private to "obéis": bé. Private to "osais": a.
"obéis" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC · "osais" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- osais ← oasis · osaiss · osasi · osias · ossais · soais
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "obéis" for "osais" ever safe?
Which is more common, "obéis" or "osais"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "obéis" and "osais" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "obéis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "osais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #57,689 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "obéis" and "osais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "obéis vs ordis". 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 #57,689 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.