aufsvsavisWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: aufs is a abbrev, avis is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“aufs” is an abbrev and “avis” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,005
“aufs” frequency rank
#48,746
“avis” frequency rank
49751
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aufs avis
Definition auf das das, was man über etwas denkt; Ansicht, Meinung

Where the eye mixes aufs and avis

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

4 ch
aufs
4 ch
avis

Why the eye confuses aufs with avis

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: aufs is [aʊ̯fs] while avis is [avi]. 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 (abbrev vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49751, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aufs is recorded at frequency rank #1,005, classified as anabbrev, pronounced [aʊ̯fs]. avis is at rank #48,746, tagged as anoun, pronounced [avi].

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 49751, this pair ranks #1,199,726 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of aufs vs avis

Shared letters: as. Private to "aufs": fu. Private to "avis": iv.

"aufs" · 4 letters · shape VVCC  ·  "avis" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aufsafus · auffs · aufss · ausf · uafs
  • avisaivs · aviss · avsi · avvis · vais

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "aufs" and "avis" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "aufs" is an abbrev and "avis" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "aufs" or "avis"?
"aufs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,005 in our German list, against #48,746 for "avis". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "aufs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "avis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,199,726 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aufs" and "avis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ages 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 #1,199,726 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