avezvsayezWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“avez” and “ayez” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#262
“avez” frequency rank
#5,524
“ayez” frequency rank
5786
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature avez ayez
Definition Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de avoir. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent du subjonctif de avoir.

Where the eye mixes avez and ayez

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

4 ch
avez
4 ch
ayez

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. avez (\a.ve\) and ayez (\ɛ.je\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - v in “avez” becomes y in “ayez”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5786, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

avez is recorded at frequency rank #262, classified as averb, pronounced \a.ve\. ayez is at rank #5,524, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛ.je\.

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 5786, this pair ranks #428,076 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of avez vs ayez

Shared letters: aez. Private to "avez": v. Private to "ayez": y.

"avez" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "ayez" · 4 letters · shape VVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • avezaevz · avezz · avvez · avze · vaez
  • ayezaeyz · ayezz · ayyez · ayze · yaez

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "avez" and "ayez" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\a.ve\ versus \ɛ.je\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "avez" or "ayez"?
"avez" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #262 in our French list, against #5,524 for "ayez". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "avez" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ayez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #428,076 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "avez" and "ayez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aves vs ayez". 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