apovsautoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“apo” and “auto” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#44,553
“apo” frequency rank
#871
“auto” frequency rank
45424
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature apo auto
Definition Tarea. Vehículo de cuatro ruedas, cerrado, con asientos, propulsado por un motor de combustión o eléctrico, destinado al transporte de una a cinco personas.

Where the eye mixes apo and auto

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

3 ch
apo
4 ch
auto

Look-alike desk: apo vs auto

A purely visual mix-up. apo (/aˈpo/) and auto ([ˈawt̪o]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45424, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

apo is recorded at frequency rank #44,553, classified as anoun, pronounced /aˈpo/. auto is at rank #871, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈawt̪o].

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 45424, this pair ranks #131,512 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of apo vs auto

Shared letters: ao. Private to "apo": p. Private to "auto": tu.

"apo" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "auto" · 4 letters · shape VVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • autoatuo · auot · autto · uato

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "apo" and "auto" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/aˈpo/ versus [ˈawt̪o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "apo" or "auto" show up more?
"auto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #871 in our Spanish list, against #44,553 for "apo". 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 "apo" 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 #131,512 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "apo" and "auto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "apis vs apo". 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 #131,512 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list