af

\aːv\

/\aːv\/ prep

The verdict

“af” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #14,405) as a preposition. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#14,405
frequency rank, French
6,727
“A” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - De. Note d’usage : la préposition est suivie du datif.

Corpus desk

Index FR-af · af · French

af · rank #14,405 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #14,405
  • LEN-SHORT 2 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,727
  • PHOTO-FINISH adepte

Nearest frequency peer: adepte (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « af »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « af » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

af vs au
50% similar
af vs As
0% similar
af vs an
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for af
PropertyValue
Headwordaf
LanguageFrench
Part of speechPreposition
IPA\aːv\
Letters2
Frequency rank#14,405
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « af »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.afse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « adepte » (#14,404), « affluence » (#14,406), « acquéreur » (#14,403). Parmi 6,727 lemmes en « A », « af » est au #14,405. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for af is neighbouring look-alikes ("au", "As", …), not just typos; it is apreposition pronounced \aːv\. Frequency #14,405 among 6,727 “A” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

No misspelling variants are generated for af in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "au", "As", "an", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is af, spelled A-F.

Definition

  1. 1
    De. Note d’usage : la préposition est suivie du datif.
  2. 2
    Par. Note d’usage : la préposition est suivie du datif.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "af"?
"af" is spelled A-F. The IPA pronunciation is \aːv\.
What does "af" mean?
As a preposition, "af" means: De. Note d’usage : la préposition est suivie du datif.
What words are commonly confused with "af"?
"af" is commonly confused with "au", "As", "an". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "af"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "af" is \aːv\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "af" come from?
"af" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list