apnéevsaprèmWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#27,318
“apnée” frequency rank
#35,379
“aprèm” frequency rank
62697
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature apnée aprèm
Definition Absence, suspension volontaire de la respiration. Après-midi.

Where the eye mixes apnée and aprèm

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. apnée (VCCVV) and aprèm (VCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
apnée
5 ch
aprèm

Look-alike desk: apnée vs aprèm

A purely visual mix-up. apnée (\ap.ne\) and aprèm (\a.pʁɛm\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62697, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

apnée is recorded at frequency rank #27,318, classified as anoun, pronounced \ap.ne\. aprèm is at rank #35,379, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.pʁɛm\.

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 62697, this pair ranks #85,795 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of apnée vs aprèm

Shared letters: ap. Private to "apnée": ené. Private to "aprèm": mrè.

"apnée" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV  ·  "aprèm" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "apnée" and "aprèm" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ap.ne\ versus \a.pʁɛm\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "apnée" vs "aprèm" - which ranks higher?
"apnée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,318 in our French list, against #35,379 for "aprèm". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "apnée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aprèm" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #85,795 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "apnée" and "aprèm" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aprèm vs Aure". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #85,795 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