aigrevsaiséWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#31,810
“aigre” frequency rank
#12,711
“aisé” frequency rank
44521
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aigre aisé
Definition Qui a une saveur acide et amère provoquant un sentiment désagréable. Facile à faire, simple, sans problème.

Where the eye mixes aigre and aisé

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

5 ch
aigre
4 ch
aisé

Visual trap between aigre and aisé

A purely visual mix-up. aigre (\ɛɡʁ\) and aisé (\ɛ.ze\) 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 44521, 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\. aisé is at rank #12,711, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ.ze\.

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 44521, this pair ranks #209,857 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of aigre vs aisé

Shared letters: ai. Private to "aigre": egr. Private to "aisé": .

"aigre" · 5 letters · shape VVCCV  ·  "aisé" · 4 letters · shape VVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aigreagire · aiger · aiggre · aigrre · airge · iagre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "aigre" and "aisé" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɛɡʁ\ versus \ɛ.ze\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "aigre" or "aisé" show up more?
"aisé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,711 in our French list, against #31,810 for "aigre". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "aigre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aisé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #209,857 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aigre" and "aisé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aigre vs Aure". 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 #209,857 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