actesvsactuTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,552
“actes” frequency rank
#12,896
“actu” frequency rank
14448
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature actes actu
Definition Pluriel de acte. Actualité.

Where the eye mixes actes and actu

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
actes
4 ch
actu

Visual trap between actes and actu

A purely visual mix-up. actes (\akt\) and actu (\ak.ty\) 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 14448, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

actes is recorded at frequency rank #1,552, classified as anoun, pronounced \akt\. actu is at rank #12,896, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ak.ty\.

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 14448, this pair ranks #396,605 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of actes vs actu

Shared letters: act. Private to "actes": es. Private to "actu": u.

"actes" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "actu" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • actesacctes · acets · actess · actse · acttes · atces · cates
  • actuacctu · acttu · acut · atcu · catu

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "actes" for "actu" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\akt\ versus \ak.ty\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "actes" vs "actu" - which ranks higher?
"actes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,552 in our French list, against #12,896 for "actu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "actes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "actu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #396,605 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "actes" and "actu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "actu vs arti". 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 #396,605 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