annéevsannexéeTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#173
“année” frequency rank
#26,259
“annexée” frequency rank
26432
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature année annexée
Definition Subdivision du temps, correspondant à la durée d’une révolution de la Terre autour du Soleil, qui comporte 365 jours (ou 366 jours dans l’année bissextile), 52 semaines environ, 12 mois solaires. Féminin singulier de annexé.

Where the eye mixes année and annexée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. année runs 5 letters (VCCVV) against annexée's 7 (VCCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
année
7 ch
annexée

Why the eye confuses année with annexée

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: année is \a.ne\ while annexée is \a.nɛk.se\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 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 26432, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

année is recorded at frequency rank #173, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.ne\. annexée is at rank #26,259, tagged as anadj, pronounced \a.nɛk.se\.

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 26432, this pair ranks #335,046 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of année vs annexée

Shared letters: aené. Private to "année": -. Private to "annexée": x.

"année" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV  ·  "annexée" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "année" for "annexée" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "année" is a noun and "annexée" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "année" or "annexée" show up more?
"année" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #173 in our French list, against #26,259 for "annexée". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "année" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "annexée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #335,046 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "année" and "annexée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "annexée vs annexés". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #335,046 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