Which to use
“obligé” is an adjective and “obligent” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,780
- “obligé” frequency rank
- #16,957
- “obligent” frequency rank
- 18737
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | obligé | obligent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est d’usage, dont on ne peut guère se dispenser ; obligatoire. | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de obliger. |
Letter map: obligé vs obligent
Shared letters muted; letters that set obligé and obligent apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. obligé runs 6 letters (VCCVCV) against obligent's 8 (VCCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Part-of-speech tell for obligé / obligent
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: obligé is anadjective and obligentaverb. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18737, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
obligé is recorded at frequency rank #1,780, classified as anadj. obligent is at rank #16,957, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɔ.bliʒ\.
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 18737, this pair ranks #376,833 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of obligé vs obligent
Shared letters: bgilo. Private to "obligé": é. Private to "obligent": ent.
"obligé" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "obligent" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- obligent ← boligent · obbligent · obilgent · oblgient · obliegnt · obligennt · obligentt · obligetn
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "obligé" and "obligent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "obligé" or "obligent"?
What to do next
You've compared "obligé" and "obligent". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "obligé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "obligent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #376,833 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "obligé" and "obligent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "obligea vs obligent". 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 #376,833 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.