aimévsapteConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#1,466
“aimé” frequency rank
#12,518
“apte” frequency rank
13984
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aimé apte
Definition Chéri. Qui est propre à quelque chose.

Where the eye mixes aimé and apte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. aimé (VVCV) and apte (VCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
aimé
4 ch
apte

Why the eye confuses aimé with apte

A purely visual mix-up. aimé (\ɛ.me\) and apte (\apt\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13984, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aimé is recorded at frequency rank #1,466, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ.me\. apte is at rank #12,518, tagged as anadj, pronounced \apt\.

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 13984, this pair ranks #398,703 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of aimé vs apte

Shared letters: a. Private to "aimé": imé. Private to "apte": ept.

"aimé" · 4 letters · shape VVCV  ·  "apte" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • apteapet · appte · atpe

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "aimé" for "apte" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ.me\ versus \apt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "aimé" or "apte"?
"aimé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,466 in our French list, against #12,518 for "apte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "aimé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "apte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #398,703 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aimé" and "apte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "apte vs arti". 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 #398,703 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