Which to use
“affaire” and “affairs” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #526
- “affaire” frequency rank
- #43,249
- “affairs” frequency rank
- 43775
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | affaire | affairs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Chose dont on doit s’occuper à faire. | Pluriel de affair. |
Where the eye mixes affaire and affairs
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. affaire (VCCVVCV) and affairs (VCCVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between affaire and affairs
A purely visual mix-up. affaire (\a.fɛʁ\) 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 a single letter - e in “affaire” becomes s in “affairs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43775, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
affaire is recorded at frequency rank #526, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.fɛʁ\. 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 43775, this pair ranks #215,499 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of affaire vs affairs
Shared letters: afir. Private to "affaire": e. Private to "affairs": s.
"affaire" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCV · "affairs" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "affaire" and "affairs" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "affaire" vs "affairs" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "affaire" 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 #215,499 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "affaire" and "affairs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "affair vs affairs". 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 #215,499 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.