an vs aut, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“an” is a preposition and “aut” is a conjunction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26
“an” frequency rank: #20,843
“aut” frequency rank: 20869
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	an	aut
Definition	bestimmt ein Ziel, einen Zielpunkt, mit welchem etw. in Berührung kommt	einen Unterschied anzeigend; oder

Letter map: an vs aut

Shared letters muted; letters that set an and aut apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch

3 ch

aut

Role in the sentence - an and aut

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: an is apreposition and autaconjunction. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20869, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

an is recorded at frequency rank #26, classified as aprep, pronounced [an]. aut is at rank #20,843, tagged as aconj.

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 20869, this pair ranks #1,892,816 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of an vs aut

Shared letters: a. Private to "an": n. Private to "aut": tu.

"an" · 2 letters · shape VC · "aut" · 3 letters · shape VVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "an" and "aut" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "an" is a preposition and "aut" a conjunction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary German text, does "an" or "aut" show up more?

"an" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26 in our German list, against #20,843 for "aut". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "an" and "aut".

Full dictionary entry for "an" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "aut" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,892,816 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"an" and "aut" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "AUD vs aut". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,892,816 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.