effacéesvsespacéesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#31,471
“effacées” frequency rank
#37,321
“espacées” frequency rank
68792
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature effacées espacées
Definition Féminin pluriel de effacé. Féminin pluriel de espacé.

Where the eye mixes effacées and espacées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. effacées and espacées follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
effacées
8 ch
espacées

Visual trap between effacées and espacées

A purely visual mix-up. effacées (\e.fa.se\) and espacées (\ɛs.pa.se\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68792, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

effacées is recorded at frequency rank #31,471, classified as anadj, pronounced \e.fa.se\. espacées is at rank #37,321, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛs.pa.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 68792, this pair ranks #57,685 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of effacées vs espacées

Shared letters: acesé. Private to "effacées": f. Private to "espacées": p.

"effacées" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVVC  ·  "espacées" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "effacées" and "espacées" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\e.fa.se\ versus \ɛs.pa.se\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "effacées" or "espacées"?
"effacées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,471 in our French list, against #37,321 for "espacées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "effacées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "espacées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #57,685 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "effacées" and "espacées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "effacées vs effacera". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #57,685 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