acesvsaseWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#43,246
“aces” frequency rank
#43,779
“ase” frequency rank
87025
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aces ase
Definition Pluriel de ace. Plante herbacée vivace de la famille des Apiaceae, dont l’espèce la plus connue est l’ase fétide (Ferula assa-foetida).

Where the eye mixes aces and ase

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. aces runs 4 letters (VCVC) against ase's 3 (VCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
aces
3 ch
ase

Visual trap between aces and ase

A purely visual mix-up. aces (\ɛs\) and ase (\az\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 87025, 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\. ase is at rank #43,779, tagged as anoun, pronounced \az\.

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 87025, this pair ranks #8,869 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of aces vs ase

Shared letters: aes. Private to "aces": c. Private to "ase": -.

"aces" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "ase" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Known mistypes of this pair

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "aces" and "ase" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɛs\ versus \az\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "aces" or "ase"?
"aces" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #43,246 in our French list, against #43,779 for "ase". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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 "ase" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #8,869 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aces" and "ase" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ase 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 #8,869 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