obligéevsobligezWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#6,720
“obligée” frequency rank
#38,948
“obligez” frequency rank
45668
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature obligée obligez
Definition Féminin singulier de obligé. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de obliger.

Same sound, different letters: obligée vs obligez

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. obligée (VCCVCVV) and obligez (VCCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
obligée
7 ch
obligez

Same sound, different spelling - obligée / obligez

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: obligée and obligez 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 45668, 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\. obligez is at rank #38,948, 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 45668, this pair ranks #200,977 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of obligée vs obligez

Shared letters: begilo. Private to "obligée": é. Private to "obligez": z.

"obligée" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV  ·  "obligez" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • obligezboligez · obbligez · obilgez · oblgiez · obliegz · obligezz · obliggez · obligze

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "obligée" for "obligez" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "obligée" is an adjective and "obligez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "obligée" vs "obligez" - which ranks higher?
"obligée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,720 in our French list, against #38,948 for "obligez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "obligée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "obligez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #200,977 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "obligée" and "obligez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "obligea vs obligez". 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 #200,977 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