affairvsaffaméWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: affair is a noun, affamé is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“affair” is a noun and “affamé” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,123
“affair” frequency rank
#24,093
“affamé” frequency rank
62216
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature affair affamé
Definition Cas. Qui souffre de la faim, par absence ou privation de nourriture, avoir très faim.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set affair and affamé apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
affair
6 ch
affamé

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: affair is \ə.ˈfɛɹ\ while affamé is \a.fa.me\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62216, 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\. affamé is at rank #24,093, tagged as anadj, pronounced \a.fa.me\.

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 62216, this pair ranks #88,275 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of affair vs affamé

Shared letters: af. Private to "affair": ir. Private to "affamé": .

"affair" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC  ·  "affamé" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • affairafafir · afair · affairr · affari · affiar · fafair

Frequency comparison

affair#38,123
affamé#24,093

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "affair" and "affamé" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "affair" is a noun and "affamé" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "affair" or "affamé"?
"affamé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,093 in our French list, against #38,123 for "affair". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering affair vs affamé

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “affair”; for an adjective, it's “affamé”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “affair” 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