Which to use
“acheta” and “achetais” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,886
- “acheta” frequency rank
- #39,624
- “achetais” frequency rank
- 70510
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | acheta | achetais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple du verbe acheter. | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait du verbe acheter. |
Where the eye mixes acheta and achetais
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. acheta runs 6 letters (VCCVCV) against achetais's 8 (VCCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses acheta with achetais
A purely visual mix-up. acheta (\a.ʃə.ta\) and achetais (\a.ʃə.tɛ\) 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 extra letter(s) - “acheta” sits inside “achetais”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70510, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
acheta is recorded at frequency rank #30,886, classified as averb, pronounced \a.ʃə.ta\. achetais is at rank #39,624, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.ʃə.tɛ\.
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 70510, this pair ranks #51,064 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of acheta vs achetais
Shared letters: aceht. Private to "acheta": -. Private to "achetais": is.
"acheta" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "achetais" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "acheta" for "achetais" ever safe?
Frequency check: "acheta" vs "achetais" - which ranks higher?
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 "acheta" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "achetais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #51,064 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "acheta" and "achetais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "achetais vs achèterais". 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 #51,064 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.