effectvseffetWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#20,129
“effect” frequency rank
#270
“effet” frequency rank
20399
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature effect effet
Definition Résultat, suite, aboutissement. Ce qui est produit par quelque cause.

Where the eye mixes effect and effet

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
effect
5 ch
effet

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. effect (\ɪ.ˈfɛkt\) and effet (\e.fɛ\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20399, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

effect is recorded at frequency rank #20,129, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɪ.ˈfɛkt\. effet is at rank #270, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.fɛ\.

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 20399, this pair ranks #368,466 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of effect vs effet

Shared letters: eft. Private to "effect": c. Private to "effet": -.

"effect" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC  ·  "effet" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • effectefect · efefct · effcet · effecct · effectt · effetc · fefect
  • effetefeft · efet · effett · effte · fefet

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "effect" and "effet" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɪ.ˈfɛkt\ versus \e.fɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "effect" or "effet"?
"effet" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #270 in our French list, against #20,129 for "effect". 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 "effect" and "effet". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "effect" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "effet" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #368,466 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "effect" and "effet" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "effect vs effectua". 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