acesvsavezWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: aces is a noun, avez is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“aces” is a noun and “avez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,246
“aces” frequency rank
#262
“avez” frequency rank
43508
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aces avez
Definition Pluriel de ace. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de avoir.

Where the eye mixes aces and avez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
aces
4 ch
avez

Why the eye confuses aces with avez

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: aces is \ɛs\ while avez is \a.ve\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43508, 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\. avez is at rank #262, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.ve\.

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 43508, this pair ranks #217,526 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of aces vs avez

Shared letters: ae. Private to "aces": cs. Private to "avez": vz.

"aces" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "avez" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • acesaecs
  • avezaevz · avezz · avvez · avze · vaez

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "aces" for "avez" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "aces" is a noun and "avez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "aces" vs "avez" - which ranks higher?
"avez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #262 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 "avez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #217,526 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aces" and "avez" 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 #217,526 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