accèsvsaesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: accès is a noun, aes is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“accès” is a noun and “aes” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#765
“accès” frequency rank
#42,143
“aes” frequency rank
42908
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature accès aes
Definition Action, endroit, ou facilité plus ou moins grande d’accéder dans un lieu, physique ou virtuel. Aisé, facile.

Where the eye mixes accès and aes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
accès
3 ch
aes

Why the eye confuses accès with aes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: accès is \ak.sɛ\ while aes is \ˈɛːs\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42908, 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\. aes is at rank #42,143, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ˈɛːs\.

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 42908, this pair ranks #221,996 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of accès vs aes

Shared letters: as. Private to "accès": . Private to "aes": e.

"accès" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "aes" · 3 letters · shape VVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "accès" and "aes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "accès" is a noun and "aes" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "accès" or "aes"?
"accès" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #765 in our French list, against #42,143 for "aes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "accès" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #221,996 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "accès" and "aes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aes vs aves". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #221,996 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