achetervsachevéeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: acheter is a verb, achevée is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“acheter” is a verb and “achevée” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#782
“acheter” frequency rank
#10,268
“achevée” frequency rank
11050
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acheter achevée
Definition Acquérir quelque chose en l’échangeant contre sa valeur en devise. Féminin singulier de achevé.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set acheter and achevée apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
acheter
7 ch
achevée

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: acheter is \a.ʃə.te\ while achevée is \a.ʃə.ve\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11050, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acheter is recorded at frequency rank #782, classified as averb, pronounced \a.ʃə.te\. achevée is at rank #10,268, tagged as anadj, pronounced \a.ʃə.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 11050, this pair ranks #410,658 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of acheter vs achevée

Shared letters: aceh. Private to "acheter": rt. Private to "achevée": .

"acheter" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "achevée" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • acheteraccheter · acehter · acheetr · acheterr · achetre · achetter · achheter · achteer

Frequency comparison

acheter#782
achevée#10,268

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "acheter" and "achevée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "acheter" is a verb and "achevée" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "acheter" or "achevée"?
"acheter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #782 in our French list, against #10,268 for "achevée". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering acheter vs achevée

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “acheter”; for an adjective, it's “achevée”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “acheter” 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