avecvsaviConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#32
“avec” frequency rank
#29,236
“avi” frequency rank
29268
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature avec avi
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? ». Participe passé masculin singulier du verbe avir.

Where the eye mixes avec and avi

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
avec
3 ch
avi

Why the eye confuses avec with avi

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: avec is \a.vɛk\ while avi is \a.vi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29268, 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\. avi is at rank #29,236, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.vi\.

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 29268, this pair ranks #317,731 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of avec vs avi

Shared letters: av. Private to "avec": ce. Private to "avi": i.

"avec" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "avi" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • avecaevc · avce · avecc · avvec · vaec

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "avec" and "avi" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "avec" is a preposition and "avi" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "avec" or "avi" show up more?
"avec" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32 in our French list, against #29,236 for "avi". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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 "avi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #317,731 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "avec" and "avi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aves vs avi". 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 #317,731 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