affilévsaffiléeWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#46,560
“affilé” frequency rank
#13,100
“affilée” frequency rank
59660
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature affilé affilée
Definition Qui a le tranchant fin, aiguisé. Participe passé féminin singulier du verbe affiler.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set affilé and affilée apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
affilé
7 ch
affilée

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: affilé and affilée carry the same recorded pronunciation, \a.fi.le\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “affilé” sits inside “affilée”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59660, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

affilé is recorded at frequency rank #46,560, classified as anadj, pronounced \a.fi.le\. affilée is at rank #13,100, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.fi.le\.

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 59660, this pair ranks #101,908 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of affilé vs affilée

Shared letters: afilé. Private to "affilé": -. Private to "affilée": e.

"affilé" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "affilée" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV

Frequency comparison

affilé#46,560
affilée#13,100

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "affilé" and "affilée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "affilé" is an adjective and "affilée" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "affilé" or "affilée"?
"affilée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,100 in our French list, against #46,560 for "affilé". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering affilé vs affilée

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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