obligésvsobligezWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#5,792
“obligés” frequency rank
#38,948
“obligez” frequency rank
44740
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature obligés obligez
Definition Masculin pluriel de obligé. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de obliger.

Same sound, different letters: obligés vs obligez

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. obligés and obligez follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
obligés
7 ch
obligez

Same sound, different spelling - obligés / obligez

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: obligés 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 44740, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

obligés is recorded at frequency rank #5,792, 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 44740, this pair ranks #208,179 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of obligés vs obligez

Shared letters: bgilo. Private to "obligés": . Private to "obligez": ez.

"obligés" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "obligez" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "obligés" and "obligez" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "obligés" is an adjective and "obligez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "obligés" or "obligez"?
"obligés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,792 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "obligés" 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 #208,179 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "obligés" 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 #208,179 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