annevsayeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: anne is a noun, aye is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“anne” is a noun and “aye” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,110
“anne” frequency rank
#31,835
“aye” frequency rank
33945
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature anne aye
Definition Mère. Première personne du singulier du subjonctif présent du verbe avoir.

Where the eye mixes anne and aye

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

4 ch
anne
3 ch
aye

Look-alike desk: anne vs aye

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: anne is \ɑn.nɛ\ while aye is \ɛ\. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33945, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

anne is recorded at frequency rank #2,110, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɑn.nɛ\. aye is at rank #31,835, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛ\.

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 33945, this pair ranks #287,206 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of anne vs aye

Shared letters: ae. Private to "anne": n. Private to "aye": y.

"anne" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "aye" · 3 letters · shape VVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • anneane · anen · nane

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "anne" for "aye" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "anne" is a noun and "aye" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "anne" or "aye" show up more?
"anne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,110 in our French list, against #31,835 for "aye". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "anne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aye" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #287,206 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "anne" and "aye" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aves vs aye". 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 #287,206 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