accomplivsaccomplirWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: accompli is a adjective, accomplir is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“accompli” is an adjective and “accomplir” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,579
“accompli” frequency rank
#5,943
“accomplir” frequency rank
12522
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature accompli accomplir
Definition Qui est parfait en son genre. Achever entièrement.

Where the eye mixes accompli and accomplir

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. accompli runs 8 letters (VCCVCCCV) against accomplir's 9 (VCCVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
accompli
9 ch
accomplir

Visual trap between accompli and accomplir

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: accompli is \a.kɔ̃.pli\ while accomplir is \a.kɔ̃.pliʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “accompli” sits inside “accomplir”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12522, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

accompli is recorded at frequency rank #6,579, classified as anadj, pronounced \a.kɔ̃.pli\. accomplir is at rank #5,943, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.kɔ̃.pliʁ\.

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 12522, this pair ranks #404,915 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of accompli vs accomplir

Shared letters: acilmop. Private to "accompli": -. Private to "accomplir": r.

"accompli" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCCV  ·  "accomplir" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • accompli ← accmopli · accomlpi · accommpli · accompil · accomplli · accomppli · accopmli · acocmpli
  • accomplir ← accmoplir · accomlpir · accommplir · accompilr · accomplirr · accompllir · accomplri · accompplir

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "accompli" and "accomplir" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "accompli" is an adjective and "accomplir" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "accompli" or "accomplir" show up more?
"accomplir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,943 in our French list, against #6,579 for "accompli". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "accompli" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "accomplir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #404,915 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "accompli" and "accomplir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "accomplir vs accoupler". 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 #404,915 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