ansesvsaseTell them apart

Which to use

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

#22,162
“anses” frequency rank
#43,779
“ase” frequency rank
65941
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature anses ase
Definition Pluriel de anse. 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 anses and ase

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. anses runs 5 letters (VCCVC) against ase's 3 (VCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
anses
3 ch
ase

Visual trap between anses and ase

A purely visual mix-up. anses (\ɑ̃s\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65941, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

anses is recorded at frequency rank #22,162, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃s\. 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 65941, this pair ranks #70,073 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of anses vs ase

Shared letters: aes. Private to "anses": n. Private to "ase": -.

"anses" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "ase" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • anses ← aness · annses · ansess · ansses · asnes · nases

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "anses" and "ase" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃s\ versus \az\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "anses" vs "ase" - which ranks higher?
"anses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,162 in our French list, against #43,779 for "ase". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "anses" and "ase" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "anses" 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 #70,073 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "anses" 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 #70,073 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