Which to use
“active” is a noun and “actives” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,861
- “active” frequency rank
- #11,335
- “actives” frequency rank
- 14196
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | active | actives |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Partie de l'armée qui, en temps de paix, est maintenue en état de combattre immédiatement. | Féminin pluriel de actif. |
Same sound, different letters: active vs actives
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.
Homophone desk: active vs actives
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: active and actives carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ak.tiv\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “active” sits inside “actives”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14196, 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\. actives is at rank #11,335, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ak.tiv\.
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 14196, this pair ranks #397,751 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of active vs actives
Shared letters: aceitv. Private to "active": -. Private to "actives": s.
"active" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "actives" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "active" and "actives" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "active" or "actives"?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "active" / "actives". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "active" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "actives" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #397,751 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "active" and "actives" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "activées vs actives". 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 #397,751 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.