avancéevsavancéesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: avancée is a noun, avancées is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“avancée” is a noun and “avancées” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,010
“avancée” frequency rank
#6,586
“avancées” frequency rank
11596
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature avancée avancées
Definition Ce qui fait saillie. Féminin pluriel de avancé.

Same sound, different letters: avancée vs avancées

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. avancée runs 7 letters (VCVCCVV) against avancées's 8 (VCVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
avancée
8 ch
avancées

Same sound, different spelling - avancée / avancées

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: avancée and avancées carry the same recorded pronunciation, \a.vɑ̃.se\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “avancée” sits inside “avancées”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11596, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

avancée is recorded at frequency rank #5,010, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.vɑ̃.se\. avancées is at rank #6,586, tagged as anadj, 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 11596, this pair ranks #408,564 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of avancée vs avancées

Shared letters: acenvé. Private to "avancée": -. Private to "avancées": s.

"avancée" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVV  ·  "avancées" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "avancée" and "avancées" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "avancée" is a noun and "avancées" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "avancée" or "avancées" show up more?
"avancée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,010 in our French list, against #6,586 for "avancées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

"avancée" and "avancées" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "avancée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "avancées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #408,564 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "avancée" and "avancées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "agacée vs avancée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #408,564 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