acquisvsacquisesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,605
“acquis” frequency rank
#13,954
“acquises” frequency rank
16559
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acquis acquises
Definition Qui est obtenu, sans que cela ait été auparavant déjà possédé. Féminin pluriel de acquis.

Where the eye mixes acquis and acquises

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

6 ch
acquis
8 ch
acquises

Why the eye confuses acquis with acquises

A purely visual mix-up. acquis (\a.ki\) and acquises (\a.kiz\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “acquis” sits inside “acquises”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16559, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acquis is recorded at frequency rank #2,605, classified as anadj, pronounced \a.ki\. acquises is at rank #13,954, tagged as anadj, pronounced \a.kiz\.

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 16559, this pair ranks #387,278 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of acquis vs acquises

Shared letters: aciqsu. Private to "acquis": -. Private to "acquises": e.

"acquis" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC  ·  "acquises" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • acquisaccquis · acqius · acqquis · acquiss · acqusi · acuqis · aqcuis · caquis
  • acquisesaccquises · acqiuses · acqquises · acquiess · acquisess · acquisses · acqusies · acuqises

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "acquis" and "acquises" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\a.ki\ versus \a.kiz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "acquis" or "acquises"?
"acquis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,605 in our French list, against #13,954 for "acquises". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "acquis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "acquises" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #387,278 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acquis" and "acquises" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "accuses vs acquises". 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 #387,278 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