aiméevsairesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#8,064
“aimée” frequency rank
#7,646
“aires” frequency rank
15710
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aimée aires
Definition Celle qui est aimée. Pluriel de aire.

Where the eye mixes aimée and aires

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. aimée (VVCVV) and aires (VVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
aimée
5 ch
aires

Look-alike desk: aimée vs aires

A purely visual mix-up. aimée (\e.me\) and aires (\ɛʁ\) 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 15710, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aimée is recorded at frequency rank #8,064, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.me\. aires is at rank #7,646, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛʁ\.

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 15710, this pair ranks #391,159 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of aimée vs aires

Shared letters: aei. Private to "aimée": mé. Private to "aires": rs.

"aimée" · 5 letters · shape VVCVV  ·  "aires" · 5 letters · shape VVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aires ← aiers · airess · airres · airse · aries · iares

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "aimée" and "aires" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\e.me\ versus \ɛʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "aimée" vs "aires" - which ranks higher?
"aires" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,646 in our French list, against #8,064 for "aimée". 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 "aimée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aires" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #391,159 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aimée" and "aires" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aires vs aves". 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 #391,159 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