AuevsAutoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“Aue” and “Auto” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#12,230
“Aue” frequency rank
#426
“Auto” frequency rank
12656
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Aue Auto
Definition flaches, feuchtes, am Wasser gelegenes Gelände, oft mit Büschen und einzelnen Bäumen bestandene Wiesen Automobil meist Personenkraftwagen; selbst angetriebenes Straßenfahrzeug oder auch Geländefahrzeug

Where the eye mixes Aue and Auto

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

3 ch
Aue
4 ch
Auto

Why the eye confuses Aue with Auto

A purely visual mix-up. Aue ([ˈaʊ̯ə]) and Auto ([ˈaʊ̯to]) 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 12656, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Aue is recorded at frequency rank #12,230, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈaʊ̯ə]. Auto is at rank #426, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈaʊ̯to].

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 12656, this pair ranks #1,962,853 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Aue vs Auto

Shared letters: au. Private to "Aue": e. Private to "Auto": ot.

"Aue" · 3 letters · shape VVV  ·  "Auto" · 4 letters · shape VVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Autoatuo · auot · autto · uato

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Aue" and "Auto" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈaʊ̯ə] versus [ˈaʊ̯to]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Aue" or "Auto" show up more?
"Auto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #426 in our German list, against #12,230 for "Aue". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Aue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Auto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,962,853 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Aue" and "Auto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "AUD vs Aue". 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 #1,962,853 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