Which to use
“affair” and “affairs” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #38,123
- “affair” frequency rank
- #43,249
- “affairs” frequency rank
- 81372
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | affair | affairs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cas. | Pluriel de affair. |
Where the eye mixes affair and affairs
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. affair runs 6 letters (VCCVVC) against affairs's 7 (VCCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: affair vs affairs
A purely visual mix-up. affair (\ə.ˈfɛɹ\) and affairs (\ə.ˈfɛɹz\) 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 extra letter(s) - “affair” sits inside “affairs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81372, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
affair is recorded at frequency rank #38,123, classified as anoun, pronounced \ə.ˈfɛɹ\. affairs is at rank #43,249, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ə.ˈfɛɹz\.
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 81372, this pair ranks #18,904 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of affair vs affairs
Shared letters: afir. Private to "affair": -. Private to "affairs": s.
"affair" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC · "affairs" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "affair" and "affairs" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "affair" or "affairs"?
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 "affair" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "affairs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #18,904 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "affair" and "affairs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "affairs vs affamés". 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 #18,904 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.