Which to use
“affaire” is a noun and “affine” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #526
- “affaire” frequency rank
- #35,800
- “affine” frequency rank
- 36326
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | affaire | affine |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Chose dont on doit s’occuper à faire. | Qui présente des ressemblances ne traduisant pas toujours des liens de parenté. |
Where the eye mixes affaire and affine
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses affaire with affine
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: affaire is \a.fɛʁ\ while affine is \a.fin\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36326, 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\. affine is at rank #35,800, tagged as anadj, pronounced \a.fin\.
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 36326, this pair ranks #270,393 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of affaire vs affine
Shared letters: aefi. Private to "affaire": r. Private to "affine": n.
"affaire" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCV · "affine" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "affaire" and "affine" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "affaire" or "affine" show up more?
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 "affaire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "affine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #270,393 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "affaire" and "affine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "affilé vs affine". 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 #270,393 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.