Which to use
“active” and “activité” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,861
- “active” frequency rank
- #713
- “activité” frequency rank
- 3574
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | active | activité |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Partie de l'armée qui, en temps de paix, est maintenue en état de combattre immédiatement. | État de celui, celle, ce qui est actif, qui agit. |
Where the eye mixes active and activité
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: active vs activité
A purely visual mix-up. active (\ak.tiv\) and activité (\ak.ti.vi.te\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3574, 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\. activité is at rank #713, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ak.ti.vi.te\.
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 3574, this pair ranks #433,706 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of active vs activité
Shared letters: acitv. Private to "active": e. Private to "activité": é.
"active" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "activité" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- active ← acctive · acitve · actiev · activve · acttive · actvie · atcive · cative
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "active" for "activité" ever safe?
Which is more common, "active" or "activité"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "active" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "activité" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #433,706 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "active" and "activité" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "actée vs active". 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 #433,706 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.