accentsvsaccèsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#11,697
“accents” frequency rank
#765
“accès” frequency rank
12462
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature accents accès
Definition Pluriel d’accent. Action, endroit, ou facilité plus ou moins grande d’accéder dans un lieu, physique ou virtuel.

Where the eye mixes accents and accès

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

7 ch
accents
5 ch
accès

Look-alike desk: accents vs accès

A purely visual mix-up. accents (\ak.sɑ̃\) and accès (\ak.sɛ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12462, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

accents is recorded at frequency rank #11,697, classified as anoun, pronounced \ak.sɑ̃\. accès is at rank #765, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ak.sɛ\.

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 12462, this pair ranks #405,168 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of accents vs accès

Shared letters: acs. Private to "accents": ent. Private to "accès": è.

"accents" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCC  ·  "accès" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • accentsaccennts · accenst · accentss · accentts · accetns · accnets · acecnts · acents

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "accents" and "accès" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ak.sɑ̃\ versus \ak.sɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "accents" or "accès"?
"accès" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #765 in our French list, against #11,697 for "accents". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "accents" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "accès" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #405,168 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "accents" and "accès" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "accents vs argents". 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 #405,168 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