activéevsactiverWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: activée is a adjective, activer is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“activée” is an adjective and “activer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#25,187
“activée” frequency rank
#11,698
“activer” frequency rank
36885
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature activée activer
Definition Féminin singulier de activé. Rendre plus actif, ou plus prompt.

Same sound, different letters: activée vs activer

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.

7 ch
activée
7 ch
activer

Same sound, different spelling - activée / activer

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: activée and activer carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ak.ti.ve\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36885, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

activée is recorded at frequency rank #25,187, classified as anadj, pronounced \ak.ti.ve\. activer is at rank #11,698, tagged as averb, 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 36885, this pair ranks #266,440 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of activée vs activer

Shared letters: aceitv. Private to "activée": é. Private to "activer": r.

"activée" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV  ·  "activer" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • activeracctiver · acitver · actievr · activerr · activre · activver · acttiver · actvier

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "activée" for "activer" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "activée" is an adjective and "activer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "activée" or "activer"?
"activer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,698 in our French list, against #25,187 for "activée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "activée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "activer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #266,440 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "activée" and "activer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "actée vs activée". 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 #266,440 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