Which to use
“aigre” and “ainé” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #31,810
- “aigre” frequency rank
- #32,664
- “ainé” frequency rank
- 64474
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | aigre | ainé |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui a une saveur acide et amère provoquant un sentiment désagréable. | Qui est né le premier, avant les autres enfants d’une famille. |
Where the eye mixes aigre and ainé
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. aigre runs 5 letters (VVCCV) against ainé's 4 (VVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses aigre with ainé
A purely visual mix-up. aigre (\ɛɡʁ\) and ainé (\e.ne\) 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 64474, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
aigre is recorded at frequency rank #31,810, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛɡʁ\. ainé is at rank #32,664, tagged as anadj, pronounced \e.ne\.
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 64474, this pair ranks #76,912 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of aigre vs ainé
Shared letters: ai. Private to "aigre": egr. Private to "ainé": né.
"aigre" · 5 letters · shape VVCCV · "ainé" · 4 letters · shape VVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- aigre ← agire · aiger · aiggre · aigrre · airge · iagre
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "aigre" and "ainé" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "aigre" or "ainé" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "aigre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ainé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #76,912 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "aigre" and "ainé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ahn vs ainé". 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 #76,912 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.