effectsvseffetsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#35,918
“effects” frequency rank
#1,258
“effets” frequency rank
37176
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature effects effets
Definition Pluriel de effect. Pluriel de effet.

Where the eye mixes effects and effets

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
effects
6 ch
effets

Why the eye confuses effects with effets

A purely visual mix-up. effects (\ɪ.ˈfɛkts\) and effets (\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 37176, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

effects is recorded at frequency rank #35,918, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɪ.ˈfɛkts\. effets is at rank #1,258, 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 37176, this pair ranks #264,335 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of effects vs effets

Shared letters: efst. Private to "effects": c. Private to "effets": -.

"effects" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCC  ·  "effets" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • effectsefects · efefcts · effcets · effeccts · effecst · effectss · effectts · effetcs
  • effetsefefts · efets · effest · effetss · effetts · efftes · fefets

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "effects" for "effets" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɪ.ˈfɛkts\ versus \e.fɛ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "effects" or "effets" show up more?
"effets" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,258 in our French list, against #35,918 for "effects". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "effects" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "effets" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #264,335 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "effects" and "effets" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "effects 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

Confusion rank #264,335 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