agacevsavaleWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: agace is a noun, avale is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“agace” is a noun and “avale” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,638
“agace” frequency rank
#17,347
“avale” frequency rank
35985
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature agace avale
Definition Nom vulgaire de la pie bavarde dans plusieurs parties de la France ou de la Belgique. On trouve les graphies agace, agasse, agache. Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe avaler.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set agace and avale apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
agace
5 ch
avale

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: agace is \a.ɡas\ while avale is \a.val\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35985, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

agace is recorded at frequency rank #18,638, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.ɡas\. avale is at rank #17,347, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.val\.

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 35985, this pair ranks #272,786 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of agace vs avale

Shared letters: ae. Private to "agace": cg. Private to "avale": lv.

"agace" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "avale" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • agaceaagce · agacce · agaec · agcae · aggace · gaace
  • avaleaavle · avael · avalle · avlae · avvale · vaale

Frequency comparison

agace#18,638
avale#17,347

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "agace" and "avale" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "agace" is a noun and "avale" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "agace" or "avale"?
"avale" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,347 in our French list, against #18,638 for "agace". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering agace vs avale

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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