Which to use
“arche” and “are” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,990
- “arche” frequency rank
- #6,166
- “are” frequency rank
- 17156
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | arche | are |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Partie cintrée d’un pont, d’un aqueduc, d’un viaduc, etc. | Unité de mesure de surface de terrains, égale à 100 mètres carrés. |
Where the eye mixes arche and are
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses arche with are
A purely visual mix-up. arche (\aʁʃ\) and are (\aʁ\) 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 17156, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
arche is recorded at frequency rank #10,990, classified as anoun, pronounced \aʁʃ\. are is at rank #6,166, tagged as anoun, pronounced \aʁ\.
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 17156, this pair ranks #384,523 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of arche vs are
Shared letters: aer. Private to "arche": ch. Private to "are": -.
"arche" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV · "are" · 3 letters · shape VCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- arche ← acrhe · arcche · arceh · archhe · arhce · arrche · rache
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "arche" and "are" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "arche" or "are"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "arche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "are" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #384,523 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "arche" and "are" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "are 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 #384,523 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.