asevsavezConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#43,779
“ase” frequency rank
#262
“avez” frequency rank
44041
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ase avez
Definition Plante herbacée vivace de la famille des Apiaceae, dont l’espèce la plus connue est l’ase fétide (Ferula assa-foetida). Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de avoir.

Where the eye mixes ase and avez

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

3 ch
ase
4 ch
avez

Visual trap between ase and avez

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ase is \az\ 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 44041, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ase is recorded at frequency rank #43,779, classified as anoun, pronounced \az\. 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 44041, this pair ranks #213,486 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ase vs avez

Shared letters: ae. Private to "ase": s. Private to "avez": vz.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • avezaevz · avezz · avvez · avze · vaez

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ase" for "avez" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ase" is a noun and "avez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ase" vs "avez" - which ranks higher?
"avez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #262 in our French list, against #43,779 for "ase". 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 "ase" 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 #213,486 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ase" and "avez" 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 #213,486 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