affaiblivsaffaiblitWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#15,556
“affaibli” frequency rank
#22,474
“affaiblit” frequency rank
38030
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature affaibli affaiblit
Definition En parlant d’une personne, physique ou morale : rendu faible, diminué physiquement, moralement ou intellectuellement. Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de affaiblir.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set affaibli and affaiblit apart are highlighted. They share 8 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

8 ch
affaibli
9 ch
affaiblit

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: affaibli is \a.fɛ.bli\ while affaiblit is \a.fe.bli\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “affaibli” sits inside “affaiblit”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38030, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

affaibli is recorded at frequency rank #15,556, classified as anadj, pronounced \a.fɛ.bli\. affaiblit is at rank #22,474, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.fe.bli\.

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 38030, this pair ranks #258,191 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of affaibli vs affaiblit

Shared letters: abfil. Private to "affaibli": -. Private to "affaiblit": t.

"affaibli" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCCV  ·  "affaiblit" · 9 letters · shape VCCVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • affaibliafafibli · afaibli · affabili · affaibbli · affaibil · affaiblli · affailbi · affiabli
  • affaiblitafafiblit · afaiblit · affabilit · affaibblit · affaibilt · affaiblitt · affaibllit · affaiblti

Frequency comparison

affaibli#15,556
affaiblit#22,474

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "affaibli" and "affaiblit" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "affaibli" is an adjective and "affaiblit" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "affaibli" or "affaiblit"?
"affaibli" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,556 in our French list, against #22,474 for "affaiblit". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering affaibli vs affaiblit

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “affaibli”; for a verb, it's “affaiblit”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “affaibli” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list