autvsAutoTell them apart

Quick tell: aut is a conjunction, Auto is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#20,843
“aut” frequency rank
#426
“Auto” frequency rank
21269
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aut Auto
Definition einen Unterschied anzeigend; oder Automobil meist Personenkraftwagen; selbst angetriebenes Straßenfahrzeug oder auch Geländefahrzeug

Letter map: aut vs Auto

Shared letters muted; letters that set aut and Auto apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

3 ch
aut
4 ch
Auto

Grammar separator: aut vs Auto

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: aut is aconjunction and Autoanoun. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “aut” sits inside “Auto”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21269, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aut is recorded at frequency rank #20,843, classified as aconj. 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 21269, this pair ranks #1,888,280 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of aut vs Auto

Shared letters: atu. Private to "aut": -. Private to "Auto": o.

"aut" · 3 letters · shape VVC  ·  "Auto" · 4 letters · shape VVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Autoatuo · auot · autto · uato

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "aut" and "Auto" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "aut" is a conjunction and "Auto" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "aut" or "Auto" show up more?
"Auto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #426 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.

Useful next steps

Pair "aut" vs "Auto" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "aut" 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 #1,888,280 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aut" and "Auto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "AUD vs aut". 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 #1,888,280 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