arevsavecWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: are is a verb, avec is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“are” is a verb and “avec” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,019
“are” frequency rank
#18,175
“avec” frequency rank
22194
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature are avec
Definition 2. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens des Verbs be in Anwesenheit von, in Begleitung von; mit, bei

Where the eye mixes are and avec

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
are
4 ch
avec

Why the eye confuses are with avec

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: are is [ə] while avec is [a.vɛk]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22194, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

are is recorded at frequency rank #4,019, classified as averb, pronounced [ə]. avec is at rank #18,175, tagged as aprep, pronounced [a.vɛk].

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 22194, this pair ranks #1,877,149 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of are vs avec

Shared letters: ae. Private to "are": r. Private to "avec": cv.

"are" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "avec" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • avecaevc · avce · avecc · avvec · vaec

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "are" and "avec" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "are" is a verb and "avec" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "are" or "avec" show up more?
"are" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,019 in our German list, against #18,175 for "avec". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "are" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "avec" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,877,149 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "are" and "avec" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "avec vs avis". 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 #1,877,149 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list