acesvsacteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#43,246
“aces” frequency rank
#1,353
“acte” frequency rank
44599
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aces acte
Definition Pluriel de ace. Résultat d’une action, opération accomplie.

Where the eye mixes aces and acte

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

4 ch
aces
4 ch
acte

Look-alike desk: aces vs acte

A purely visual mix-up. aces (\ɛs\) and acte (\akt\) 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 44599, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aces is recorded at frequency rank #43,246, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛs\. acte is at rank #1,353, tagged as anoun, pronounced \akt\.

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 44599, this pair ranks #209,235 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of aces vs acte

Shared letters: ace. Private to "aces": s. Private to "acte": t.

"aces" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "acte" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aces ← aecs
  • acte ← accte · acet · actte · atce · cate

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "aces" and "acte" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɛs\ versus \akt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "aces" vs "acte" - which ranks higher?
"acte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,353 in our French list, against #43,246 for "aces". 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 "aces" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "acte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #209,235 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aces" and "acte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aces 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 #209,235 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