achètevsarrêtéWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: achète is a noun, arrêté is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“achète” is a noun and “arrêté” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,976
“achète” frequency rank
#1,018
“arrêté” frequency rank
3994
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature achète arrêté
Definition Nom générique donné aux insectes qui stridulent tels la cigale et le grillon. Qui est immobile, immuable.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set achète and arrêté apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
achète
6 ch
arrêté

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: achète is \a.ʃɛt\ while arrêté is \a.ʁɛ.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3994, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

achète is recorded at frequency rank #2,976, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.ʃɛt\. arrêté is at rank #1,018, tagged as anadj, pronounced \a.ʁɛ.te\.

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 3994, this pair ranks #432,711 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of achète vs arrêté

Shared letters: at. Private to "achète": cehè. Private to "arrêté": réê.

"achète" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "arrêté" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Frequency comparison

achète#2,976
arrêté#1,018

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "achète" and "arrêté" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "achète" is a noun and "arrêté" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "achète" or "arrêté"?
"arrêté" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,018 in our French list, against #2,976 for "achète". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering achète vs arrêté

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “achète”; for an adjective, it's “arrêté”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “achète” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list