avecvsavesTell them apart

Quick tell: avec is a preposition, aves is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“avec” is a preposition and “aves” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#32
“avec” frequency rank
#49,508
“aves” frequency rank
49540
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature avec aves
Definition Conjointement à ; en compagnie de. Note d’usage : La préposition est généralement suivie d'un pronom, à l'exception notable des régions linguistiques sous l'influence des langues germaniques comme l'Alsace, la Belgique et la Suisse, où la préposition est placée parfois en position finale sans être suivie d'un pronom. Ainsi, alors que le reste de la France dit « tu viens avec moi/nous ? », on entend parfois le long de la frontière germanophone « tu viens avec ? », comme traduction mot à mot de l'allemand « Du kommst mit? » (« tu m'accompagnes » ) et du néerlandais « kom jij mee? ». Pluriel de ave.

Where the eye mixes avec and aves

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
avec
4 ch
aves

Why the eye confuses avec with aves

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: avec is \a.vɛk\ while aves is \ˈa.βes\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - c in “avec” becomes s in “aves”, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49540, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

avec is recorded at frequency rank #32, classified as aprep, pronounced \a.vɛk\. aves is at rank #49,508, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈa.βes\.

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 49540, this pair ranks #169,794 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of avec vs aves

Shared letters: aev. Private to "avec": c. Private to "aves": s.

"avec" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "aves" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • avecaevc · avce · avecc · avvec · vaec
  • avesaevs · avess · avves

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "avec" for "aves" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "avec" is a preposition and "aves" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "avec" vs "aves" - which ranks higher?
"avec" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32 in our French list, against #49,508 for "aves". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "avec" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aves" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #169,794 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "avec" and "aves" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "avéra 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 #169,794 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