arevsavezWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#6,166
“are” frequency rank
#262
“avez” frequency rank
6428
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature are avez
Definition Unité de mesure de surface de terrains, égale à 100 mètres carrés. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de avoir.

Where the eye mixes are and avez

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

3 ch
are
4 ch
avez

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: are is \aʁ\ while avez is \a.ve\. 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 6428, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

are is recorded at frequency rank #6,166, classified as anoun, pronounced \aʁ\. avez is at rank #262, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.ve\.

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 6428, this pair ranks #426,244 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of are vs avez

Shared letters: ae. Private to "are": r. Private to "avez": vz.

"are" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "avez" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • avezaevz · avezz · avvez · avze · vaez

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "are" and "avez" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "are" is a noun and "avez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "are" or "avez"?
"avez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #262 in our French list, against #6,166 for "are". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "are" and "avez". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "are" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "avez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #426,244 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "are" and "avez" 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list