abatsvsachatsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“abats” and “achats” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#39,618
“abats” frequency rank
#4,459
“achats” frequency rank
44077
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature abats achats
Definition Pluriel de abat. Pluriel de achat.

Where the eye mixes abats and achats

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. abats runs 5 letters (VCVCC) against achats's 6 (VCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
abats
6 ch
achats

Look-alike desk: abats vs achats

A purely visual mix-up. abats (\a.ba\) and achats (\a.ʃa\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44077, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

abats is recorded at frequency rank #39,618, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.ba\. achats is at rank #4,459, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.ʃa\.

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 44077, this pair ranks #213,233 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of abats vs achats

Shared letters: ast. Private to "abats": b. Private to "achats": ch.

"abats" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC  ·  "achats" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • abats ← aabts · abast · abatss · abatts · abbats · abtas · baats
  • achats ← acahts · acchats · achast · achatss · achatts · achhats · achtas · ahcats

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "abats" for "achats" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\a.ba\ versus \a.ʃa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "abats" or "achats"?
"achats" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,459 in our French list, against #39,618 for "abats". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "abats" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "achats" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #213,233 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "abats" and "achats" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aba vs abats". 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 #213,233 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