effetvseffortWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#270
“effet” frequency rank
#1,997
“effort” frequency rank
2267
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature effet effort
Definition Ce qui est produit par quelque cause. Action de s’efforcer.

Where the eye mixes effet and effort

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
effet
6 ch
effort

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. effet (\e.fɛ\) and effort (\e.fɔʁ\) 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 2267, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

effet is recorded at frequency rank #270, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.fɛ\. effort is at rank #1,997, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.fɔʁ\.

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 2267, this pair ranks #436,462 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of effet vs effort

Shared letters: eft. Private to "effet": -. Private to "effort": or.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • effetefeft · efet · effett · effte · fefet
  • effortefforrt · effortt · effotr · effrot · efofrt · efort · fefort

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "effet" and "effort" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\e.fɛ\ versus \e.fɔʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "effet" or "effort"?
"effet" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #270 in our French list, against #1,997 for "effort". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "effet" and "effort". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "effet" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "effort" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #436,462 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "effet" and "effort" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "effects vs effet". 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