Which to use
“accent” is a noun and “accentué” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,377
- “accent” frequency rank
- #22,149
- “accentué” frequency rank
- 25526
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | accent | accentué |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Élévation de la voix sur une syllabe, dans un mot, modification de la voix dans la durée ou dans le ton des syllabes et des mots. | Participe passé masculin singulier du verbe accentuer. |
Where the eye mixes accent and accentué
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. accent runs 6 letters (VCCVCC) against accentué's 8 (VCCVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses accent with accentué
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: accent is \ak.sɑ̃\ while accentué is \ak.sɑ̃.tɥe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “accent” sits inside “accentué”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25526, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
accent is recorded at frequency rank #3,377, classified as anoun, pronounced \ak.sɑ̃\. accentué is at rank #22,149, tagged as averb, pronounced \ak.sɑ̃.tɥe\.
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 25526, this pair ranks #340,377 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of accent vs accentué
Shared letters: acent. Private to "accent": -. Private to "accentué": ué.
"accent" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC · "accentué" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- accent ← accennt · accentt · accetn · accnet · acecnt · acent · cacent
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "accent" for "accentué" ever safe?
Frequency check: "accent" vs "accentué" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "accent" and "accentué" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "accent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "accentué" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #340,377 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "accent" and "accentué" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "accentué vs accentuées". 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 #340,377 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.