avancéesvsavancerWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: avancées is a adjective, avancer is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#6,586
“avancées” frequency rank
#2,503
“avancer” frequency rank
9089
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature avancées avancer
Definition Féminin pluriel de avancé. Pousser en avant ; porter en avant.

Same sound, different letters: avancées vs avancer

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. avancées runs 8 letters (VCVCCVVC) against avancer's 7 (VCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
avancées
7 ch
avancer

Ear matches; page differs - avancées and avancer

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: avancées and avancer carry the same recorded pronunciation, \a.vɑ̃.se\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9089, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

avancées is recorded at frequency rank #6,586, classified as anadj, pronounced \a.vɑ̃.se\. 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 9089, this pair ranks #417,834 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of avancées vs avancer

Shared letters: acenv. Private to "avancées": sé. Private to "avancer": r.

"avancées" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVVC  ·  "avancer" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "avancées" for "avancer" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "avancées" is an adjective and "avancer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "avancées" or "avancer" show up more?
"avancer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,503 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

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "avancées" 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 #417,834 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "avancées" and "avancer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "advance vs avancer". 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 #417,834 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