achètesvsathéesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#17,054
“achètes” frequency rank
#20,925
“athées” frequency rank
37979
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature achètes athées
Definition Pluriel de achète. Pluriel de athée.

Where the eye mixes achètes and athées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. achètes runs 7 letters (VCCVCVC) against athées's 6 (VCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
achètes
6 ch
athées

Why the eye confuses achètes with athées

A purely visual mix-up. achètes (\a.ʃɛt\) and athées (\a.te\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37979, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

achètes is recorded at frequency rank #17,054, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.ʃɛt\. athées is at rank #20,925, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.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 37979, this pair ranks #258,584 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of achètes vs athées

Shared letters: aehst. Private to "achètes": cè. Private to "athées": é.

"achètes" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "athées" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "achètes" for "athées" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\a.ʃɛt\ versus \a.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "achètes" or "athées"?
"achètes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,054 in our French list, against #20,925 for "athées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "achètes" and "athées" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "achètes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "athées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #258,584 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "achètes" and "athées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "athées vs axées". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #258,584 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