achevavsachevéeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#37,148
“acheva” frequency rank
#10,268
“achevée” frequency rank
47416
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acheva achevée
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple du verbe achever. Féminin singulier de achevé.

Where the spellings diverge

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

6 ch
acheva
7 ch
achevée

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: acheva is \a.ʃə.va\ while achevée is \a.ʃə.ve\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47416, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acheva is recorded at frequency rank #37,148, classified as averb, pronounced \a.ʃə.va\. 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 47416, this pair ranks #187,131 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of acheva vs achevée

Shared letters: acehv. Private to "acheva": -. Private to "achevée": é.

"acheva" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "achevée" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • achevaaccheva · acehva · acheav · achevva · achheva · achvea · ahceva · caheva

Frequency comparison

acheva#37,148
achevée#10,268

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "acheva" and "achevée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "acheva" is a verb and "achevée" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "acheva" or "achevée"?
"achevée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,268 in our French list, against #37,148 for "acheva". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering acheva vs achevée

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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