ao vs aún, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“ao” is a contraction and “aún” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#21,556
“ao” frequency rank: #240
“aún” frequency rank: 21796
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ao	aún
Definition	Contracción de la preposición a ("a") y el artículo o ("el"): (al).	Indica que el hecho persiste en el presente, aunque pueda cambiar en lo sucesivo..

Where the eye mixes ao and aún

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

2 ch

3 ch

aún

Why the eye confuses ao with aún

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ao is [ɔ] while aún is [aˈũn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (contraction vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21796, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ao is recorded at frequency rank #21,556, classified as acontraction, pronounced [ɔ]. aún is at rank #240, tagged as anadv, pronounced [aˈũn].

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 21796, this pair ranks #253,304 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ao vs aún

Shared letters: a. Private to "ao": o. Private to "aún": nú.

"ao" · 2 letters · shape VV · "aún" · 3 letters · shape VVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ao" and "aún" be used interchangeably?

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

Which is more common, "ao" or "aún"?

"aún" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #240 in our Spanish list, against #21,556 for "ao". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "ao" and "aún" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "ao" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "aún" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #253,304 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ao" and "aún" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alió vs ao". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #253,304 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.