angevsaseTell them apart

Which to use

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

#3,053
“ange” frequency rank
#43,779
“ase” frequency rank
46832
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ange ase
Definition Créature purement spirituelle, qu’on représente sous figure humaine, avec des ailes, et qui désigne tantôt un envoyé céleste, tantôt un pur esprit intermédiaire entre Dieu et l’humanité. Plante herbacée vivace de la famille des Apiaceae, dont l’espèce la plus connue est l’ase fétide (Ferula assa-foetida).

Where the eye mixes ange and ase

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

4 ch
ange
3 ch
ase

Visual trap between ange and ase

A purely visual mix-up. ange (\ɑ̃ʒ\) and ase (\az\) 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 46832, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ange is recorded at frequency rank #3,053, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃ʒ\. ase is at rank #43,779, tagged as anoun, pronounced \az\.

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 46832, this pair ranks #191,721 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ange vs ase

Shared letters: ae. Private to "ange": gn. Private to "ase": s.

"ange" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "ase" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • angeagne · aneg · angge · annge

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ange" and "ase" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃ʒ\ versus \az\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "ange" or "ase" show up more?
"ange" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,053 in our French list, against #43,779 for "ase". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ange" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ase" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #191,721 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ange" and "ase" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ase 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 #191,721 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