avecvsavezWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#32
“avec” frequency rank
#262
“avez” frequency rank
294
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature avec avez
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? ». Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de avoir.

Where the eye mixes avec and avez

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

4 ch
avec
4 ch
avez

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: avec is \a.vɛk\ while avez is \a.ve\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - c in “avec” becomes z in “avez”, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 294, 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\. avez is at rank #262, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.ve\.

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 294, this pair ranks #439,868 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of avec vs avez

Shared letters: aev. Private to "avec": c. Private to "avez": z.

"avec" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "avez" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • avecaevc · avce · avecc · avvec · vaec
  • avezaevz · avezz · avvez · avze · vaez

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "avec" and "avez" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "avec" is a preposition and "avez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "avec" or "avez"?
"avec" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32 in our French list, against #262 for "avez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "avec" and "avez". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "avec" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "avez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #439,868 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "avec" and "avez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "avéra vs avez". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list