Which to use
“ace” and “arche” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,189
- “ace” frequency rank
- #10,990
- “arche” frequency rank
- 25179
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ace | arche |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Service gagnant sans que l'adversaire ait touché la balle. | Partie cintrée d’un pont, d’un aqueduc, d’un viaduc, etc. |
Where the eye mixes ace and arche
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses ace with arche
A purely visual mix-up. ace (\ɛs\) and arche (\aʁʃ\) 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 25179, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ace is recorded at frequency rank #14,189, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛs\. arche is at rank #10,990, tagged as anoun, pronounced \aʁʃ\.
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 25179, this pair ranks #342,333 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of ace vs arche
Shared letters: ace. Private to "ace": -. Private to "arche": hr.
"ace" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "arche" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- arche ← acrhe · arcche · arceh · archhe · arhce · arrche · rache
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ace" and "arche" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "ace" or "arche" show up more?
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 "ace" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "arche" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #342,333 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ace" and "arche" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ace vs aves". 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 #342,333 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.