âgéesvsaiguësWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“âgées” and “aiguës” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#6,259
“âgées” frequency rank
#33,965
“aiguës” frequency rank
40224
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature âgées aiguës
Definition Féminin pluriel de âgé. Féminin pluriel de aigu.

Where the eye mixes âgées and aiguës

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
âgées
6 ch
aiguës

Visual trap between âgées and aiguës

A purely visual mix-up. âgées (\a.ʒe\) and aiguës (\e.ɡy\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40224, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

âgées is recorded at frequency rank #6,259, classified as anadj, pronounced \a.ʒe\. aiguës is at rank #33,965, tagged as anadj, pronounced \e.ɡy\.

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 40224, this pair ranks #242,103 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of âgées vs aiguës

Shared letters: gs. Private to "âgées": eâé. Private to "aiguës": aiuë.

"âgées" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC  ·  "aiguës" · 6 letters · shape VVCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "âgées" for "aiguës" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\a.ʒe\ versus \e.ɡy\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "âgées" vs "aiguës" - which ranks higher?
"âgées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,259 in our French list, against #33,965 for "aiguës". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "âgées" and "aiguës" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "âgées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aiguës" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #242,103 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "âgées" and "aiguës" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aiguës vs ainés". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #242,103 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list