accèsvsaccruWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#765
“accès” frequency rank
#13,502
“accru” frequency rank
14267
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature accès accru
Definition Action, endroit, ou facilité plus ou moins grande d’accéder dans un lieu, physique ou virtuel. Rejeton produit par la racine.

Where the eye mixes accès and accru

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. accès (VCCVC) and accru (VCCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
accès
5 ch
accru

Why the eye confuses accès with accru

A purely visual mix-up. accès (\ak.sɛ\) and accru (\a.kʁy\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14267, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

accès is recorded at frequency rank #765, classified as anoun, pronounced \ak.sɛ\. accru is at rank #13,502, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.kʁy\.

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 14267, this pair ranks #397,434 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of accès vs accru

Shared letters: ac. Private to "accès": . Private to "accru": ru.

"accès" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "accru" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • accruaccrru · accur · acrcu · acru · cacru

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "accès" and "accru" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ak.sɛ\ versus \a.kʁy\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "accès" or "accru"?
"accès" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #765 in our French list, against #13,502 for "accru". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "accès" and "accru" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "accès" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "accru" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #397,434 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "accès" and "accru" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "accru vs aru". 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 #397,434 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