acesvsavesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#43,246
“aces” frequency rank
#49,508
“aves” frequency rank
92754
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aces aves
Definition Pluriel de ace. Pluriel de ave.

Where the eye mixes aces and aves

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. aces and aves follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
aces
4 ch
aves

Look-alike desk: aces vs aves

A purely visual mix-up. aces (\ɛs\) and aves (\ˈa.βes\) 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 a single letter - c in “aces” becomes v in “aves”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 92754, 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\. aves is at rank #49,508, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈa.βes\.

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 92754, this pair ranks #2,770 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of aces vs aves

Shared letters: aes. Private to "aces": c. Private to "aves": v.

"aces" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "aves" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aces ← aecs
  • aves ← aevs · avess · avves

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "aces" and "aves" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɛs\ versus \ˈa.βes\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "aces" or "aves"?
"aces" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #43,246 in our French list, against #49,508 for "aves". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "aces" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aves" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,770 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aces" and "aves" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "avéra 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 #2,770 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