aus vs aut, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#32
“aus” frequency rank: #20,843
“aut” frequency rank: 20875
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	aus	aut
Definition	von drinnen nach draußen	einen Unterschied anzeigend; oder

Letter map: aus vs aut

Shared letters muted; letters that set aus and aut apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch

aus

3 ch

aut

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: aus is apreposition and autaconjunction. On the page they differ by a single letter - s in “aus” becomes t in “aut”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20875, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aus is recorded at frequency rank #32, classified as aprep, pronounced [aʊ̯s]. 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 20875, this pair ranks #1,892,745 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of aus vs aut

Shared letters: au. Private to "aus": s. Private to "aut": t.

"aus" · 3 letters · shape VVC · "aut" · 3 letters · shape VVC

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

Which is more common, "aus" or "aut"?

"aus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32 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.

What to do next

You've compared "aus" and "aut". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "aus" 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 #1,892,745 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"aus" and "aut" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "AUD vs aut". Nearby pair

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.