aérévsaigreWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#35,820
“aéré” frequency rank
#31,810
“aigre” frequency rank
67630
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aéré aigre
Definition Qui reçoit un courant d'air. Qui a une saveur acide et amère provoquant un sentiment désagréable.

Where the eye mixes aéré and aigre

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. aéré runs 4 letters (VVCV) against aigre's 5 (VVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
aéré
5 ch
aigre

Visual trap between aéré and aigre

A purely visual mix-up. aéré (\a.e.ʁe\) and aigre (\ɛɡʁ\) 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 67630, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aéré is recorded at frequency rank #35,820, classified as anadj, pronounced \a.e.ʁe\. aigre is at rank #31,810, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛɡʁ\.

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 67630, this pair ranks #62,571 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of aéré vs aigre

Shared letters: ar. Private to "aéré": é. Private to "aigre": egi.

"aéré" · 4 letters · shape VVCV  ·  "aigre" · 5 letters · shape VVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aigre ← agire · aiger · aiggre · aigrre · airge · iagre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "aéré" and "aigre" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\a.e.ʁe\ versus \ɛɡʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "aéré" or "aigre"?
"aigre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,810 in our French list, against #35,820 for "aéré". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "aéré" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aigre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #62,571 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aéré" and "aigre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aéré vs avéra". 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 #62,571 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