affectévsaffectéesWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#6,361
“affecté” frequency rank
#15,793
“affectées” frequency rank
22154
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature affecté affectées
Definition Qui a de l’affectation, qui manque de naturel. Participe passé féminin pluriel du verbe affecter.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set affecté and affectées apart are highlighted. They share 7 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
affecté
9 ch
affectées

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: affecté and affectées carry the same recorded pronunciation, \a.fɛk.te\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “affecté” sits inside “affectées”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22154, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

affecté is recorded at frequency rank #6,361, classified as anadj, pronounced \a.fɛk.te\. affectées is at rank #15,793, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.fɛk.te\.

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 22154, this pair ranks #359,568 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of affecté vs affectées

Shared letters: acefté. Private to "affecté": -. Private to "affectées": s.

"affecté" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV  ·  "affectées" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVVC

Frequency comparison

affecté#6,361
affectées#15,793

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "affecté" and "affectées" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "affecté" is an adjective and "affectées" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "affecté" or "affectées"?
"affecté" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,361 in our French list, against #15,793 for "affectées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering affecté vs affectées

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “affecté”; for a verb, it's “affectées”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “affecté” 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 FrequencyWords open word-frequency list