Which to use
“espace” is a noun and “essaye” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #739
- “espace” frequency rank
- #2,174
- “essaye” frequency rank
- 2913
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | espace | essaye |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Étendue indéfinie. | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de essayer. |
Where the eye mixes espace and essaye
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: espace vs essaye
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: espace is \ɛs.pas\ while essaye is \e.sɛj\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2913, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
espace is recorded at frequency rank #739, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛs.pas\. essaye is at rank #2,174, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.sɛj\.
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 2913, this pair ranks #435,218 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of espace vs essaye
Shared letters: aes. Private to "espace": cp. Private to "essaye": y.
"espace" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "essaye" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "espace" for "essaye" ever safe?
Frequency check: "espace" vs "essaye" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "espace" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "essaye" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #435,218 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "espace" and "essaye" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "essay vs essaye". 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 #435,218 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.