Which to use
“affecter” is a verb and “affects” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,111
- “affecter” frequency rank
- #48,899
- “affects” frequency rank
- 59010
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | affecter | affects |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Destiner et appliquer une chose ou une personne à un certain usage. | Pluriel de affect. |
Where the eye mixes affecter and affects
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses affecter with affects
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: affecter is \a.fɛk.te\ while affects is \a.fɛkt\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59010, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
affecter is recorded at frequency rank #10,111, classified as averb, pronounced \a.fɛk.te\. affects is at rank #48,899, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.fɛkt\.
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 59010, this pair ranks #105,598 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of affecter vs affects
Shared letters: aceft. Private to "affecter": r. Private to "affects": s.
"affecter" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC · "affects" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "affecter" and "affects" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "affecter" vs "affects" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "affecter" and "affects" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "affecter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "affects" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #105,598 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "affecter" and "affects" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "affectifs vs affects". 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 #105,598 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.