Which to use
“active” is a noun and “activées” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,861
- “active” frequency rank
- #43,760
- “activées” frequency rank
- 46621
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | active | activées |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Partie de l'armée qui, en temps de paix, est maintenue en état de combattre immédiatement. | Féminin pluriel de activé. |
Where the eye mixes active and activées
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses active with activées
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: active is \ak.tiv\ while activées is \ak.ti.ve\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46621, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
active is recorded at frequency rank #2,861, classified as anoun, pronounced \ak.tiv\. activées is at rank #43,760, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ak.ti.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 46621, this pair ranks #193,481 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of active vs activées
Shared letters: aceitv. Private to "active": -. Private to "activées": sé.
"active" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "activées" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- active ← acctive · acitve · actiev · activve · acttive · actvie · atcive · cative
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "active" and "activées" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "active" vs "activées" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "active" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "activées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #193,481 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "active" and "activées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "activées vs attirées". 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 #193,481 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.