atteignevsatteinteConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#22,492
“atteigne” frequency rank
#3,514
“atteinte” frequency rank
26006
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature atteigne atteinte
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de atteindre. Action d’atteindre ou résultat de cette action.

Where the eye mixes atteigne and atteinte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. atteigne and atteinte follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
atteigne
8 ch
atteinte

Look-alike desk: atteigne vs atteinte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: atteigne is \a.tɛɲ\ while atteinte is \a.tɛ̃t\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26006, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

atteigne is recorded at frequency rank #22,492, classified as averb, pronounced \a.tɛɲ\. atteinte is at rank #3,514, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.tɛ̃t\.

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 26006, this pair ranks #337,638 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of atteigne vs atteinte

Shared letters: aeint. Private to "atteigne": g. Private to "atteinte": -.

"atteigne" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCCV  ·  "atteinte" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • atteigneateigne · atetigne · attegine · atteigen · atteiggne · atteignne · atteinge · attiegne
  • atteinteateinte · atetinte · atteinet · atteinnte · atteintte · atteitne · attenite · attiente

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "atteigne" and "atteinte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "atteigne" is a verb and "atteinte" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "atteigne" or "atteinte" show up more?
"atteinte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,514 in our French list, against #22,492 for "atteigne". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "atteigne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "atteinte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #337,638 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "atteigne" and "atteinte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "atteigne vs atteins". 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 #337,638 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