Which to use
“achetais” and “arrêtais” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #39,624
- “achetais” frequency rank
- #33,981
- “arrêtais” frequency rank
- 73605
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | achetais | arrêtais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait du verbe acheter. | Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif imparfait du verbe arrêter. |
Where the eye mixes achetais and arrêtais
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. achetais and arrêtais follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses achetais with arrêtais
A purely visual mix-up. achetais (\a.ʃə.tɛ\) and arrêtais (\a.ʁɛ.tɛ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73605, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
achetais is recorded at frequency rank #39,624, classified as averb, pronounced \a.ʃə.tɛ\. arrêtais is at rank #33,981, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.ʁɛ.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 73605, this pair ranks #39,879 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of achetais vs arrêtais
Shared letters: aist. Private to "achetais": ceh. Private to "arrêtais": rê.
"achetais" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVVC · "arrêtais" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- achetais ← acchetais · acehtais · acheatis · achetaiss · achetasi · achetias · achettais · achhetais
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "achetais" and "arrêtais" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "achetais" or "arrêtais"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "achetais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "arrêtais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #39,879 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "achetais" and "arrêtais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arrêtais vs arrêterais". 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 #39,879 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.