ao vs are, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#17,538
“ao” frequency rank: #19
“are” frequency rank: 17557
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ao	are
Definition	grue ("blue or green", considered one color)	second-person singular simple present of be

Letter map: ao vs are

Shared letters muted; letters that set ao and are apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch

3 ch

are

Grammar separator: ao vs are

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ao is anoun and areaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17557, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ao is recorded at frequency rank #17,538, classified as anoun. are is at rank #19, tagged as averb, pronounced /ə(ɹ)/.

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 17557, this pair ranks #450,624 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ao vs are

Shared letters: a. Private to "ao": o. Private to "are": er.

"ao" · 2 letters · shape VV · "are" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ao" for "are" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ao" is a noun and "are" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary English text, does "ao" or "are" show up more?

"are" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19 in our English list, against #17,538 for "ao". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "ao" vs "are" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "ao" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "are" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #450,624 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ao" and "are" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "amb vs ao". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #450,624 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.