aînéevsaiséesConfusable pair

Quick tell: aînée is a noun, aisées is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“aînée” is a noun and “aisées” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,515
“aînée” frequency rank
#23,749
“aisées” frequency rank
37264
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aînée aisées
Definition Enfant la plus âgée d’une famille. Féminin pluriel de aisé.

Where the eye mixes aînée and aisées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
aînée
6 ch
aisées

Look-alike desk: aînée vs aisées

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: aînée is \e.ne\ while aisées is \e.ze\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37264, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aînée is recorded at frequency rank #13,515, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.ne\. aisées is at rank #23,749, tagged as anadj, pronounced \e.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 37264, this pair ranks #263,714 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of aînée vs aisées

Shared letters: aeé. Private to "aînée": . Private to "aisées": is.

"aînée" · 5 letters · shape VVCVV  ·  "aisées" · 6 letters · shape VVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "aînée" for "aisées" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "aînée" is a noun and "aisées" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "aînée" or "aisées"?
"aînée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,515 in our French list, against #23,749 for "aisées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "aînée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aisées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #263,714 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aînée" and "aisées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "agitées vs aisées". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #263,714 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