obligéevsobligeraTell them apart

Quick tell: obligée is a adjective, obligera is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“obligée” is an adjective and “obligera” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,720
“obligée” frequency rank
#40,400
“obligera” frequency rank
47120
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature obligée obligera
Definition Féminin singulier de obligé. Troisième personne du singulier du futur de obliger.

Where the eye mixes obligée and obligera

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. obligée runs 7 letters (VCCVCVV) against obligera's 8 (VCCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
obligée
8 ch
obligera

Visual trap between obligée and obligera

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: obligée is \ɔ.bli.ʒe\ while obligera is \ɔ.bli.ʒə.ʁa\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47120, 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\. obligera is at rank #40,400, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɔ.bli.ʒə.ʁa\.

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 47120, this pair ranks #189,421 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of obligée vs obligera

Shared letters: begilo. Private to "obligée": é. Private to "obligera": ar.

"obligée" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV  ·  "obligera" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • obligeraboligera · obbligera · obilgera · oblgiera · obliegra · obligear · obligerra · obliggera

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "obligée" for "obligera" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "obligée" is an adjective and "obligera" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "obligée" or "obligera" show up more?
"obligée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,720 in our French list, against #40,400 for "obligera". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "obligée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "obligera" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #189,421 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "obligée" and "obligera" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "obligea vs obligera". 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 #189,421 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list