achetavsactaConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#30,886
“acheta” frequency rank
#27,310
“acta” frequency rank
58196
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acheta acta
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple du verbe acheter. Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple du verbe acter.

Where the eye mixes acheta and acta

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
acheta
4 ch
acta

Visual trap between acheta and acta

A purely visual mix-up. acheta (\a.ʃə.ta\) and acta (\ak.ta\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58196, 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\. acta is at rank #27,310, tagged as averb, pronounced \ak.ta\.

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 58196, this pair ranks #110,475 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of acheta vs acta

Shared letters: act. Private to "acheta": eh. Private to "acta": -.

"acheta" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "acta" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • achetaaccheta · acehta · acheat · achetta · achheta · achtea · ahceta · caheta
  • actaacat · accta · actta · atca

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "acheta" for "acta" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\a.ʃə.ta\ versus \ak.ta\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "acheta" or "acta"?
"acta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,310 in our French list, against #30,886 for "acheta". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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 "acta" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #110,475 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acheta" and "acta" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acta vs arti". 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 #110,475 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