avançavsavancerConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#32,693
“avança” frequency rank
#2,503
“avancer” frequency rank
35196
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature avança avancer
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de avancer. Pousser en avant ; porter en avant.

Where the eye mixes avança and avancer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. avança runs 6 letters (VCVCCV) against avancer's 7 (VCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
avança
7 ch
avancer

Visual trap between avança and avancer

A purely visual mix-up. avança (\a.vɑ̃.sa\) and avancer (\a.vɑ̃.se\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35196, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

avança is recorded at frequency rank #32,693, classified as averb, pronounced \a.vɑ̃.sa\. avancer is at rank #2,503, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.vɑ̃.se\.

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 35196, this pair ranks #278,466 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of avança vs avancer

Shared letters: anv. Private to "avança": ç. Private to "avancer": cer.

"avança" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV  ·  "avancer" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • avancer ← aavncer · avacner · avanccer · avancerr · avancre · avanecr · avanncer · avnacer

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "avança" and "avancer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\a.vɑ̃.sa\ versus \a.vɑ̃.se\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "avança" or "avancer"?
"avancer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,503 in our French list, against #32,693 for "avança". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "avança" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "avancer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #278,466 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "avança" and "avancer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "advance vs avança". 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 #278,466 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