Which to use
“obligée” is an adjective and “obliger” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,720
- “obligée” frequency rank
- #6,857
- “obliger” frequency rank
- 13577
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | obligée | obliger |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de obligé. | Mettre quelqu’un dans l’obligation de faire ou de dire quelque chose. |
Same sound, different letters: obligée vs obliger
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. obligée (VCCVCVV) and obliger (VCCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Same sound, different spelling - obligée / obliger
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: obligée and obliger carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ɔ.bli.ʒe\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13577, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
obligée is recorded at frequency rank #6,720, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɔ.bli.ʒe\. obliger is at rank #6,857, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɔ.bli.ʒe\.
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 13577, this pair ranks #400,422 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of obligée vs obliger
Shared letters: begilo. Private to "obligée": é. Private to "obliger": r.
"obligée" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV · "obliger" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- obliger ← boliger · obbliger · obilger · oblgier · obliegr · obligerr · obligger · obligre
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "obligée" for "obliger" ever safe?
Which is more common, "obligée" or "obliger"?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "obligée" / "obliger". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "obligée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "obliger" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #400,422 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "obligée" and "obliger" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "obligea vs obliger". 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 #400,422 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.