AvsauWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: A is a symbol, au is an article, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“A” is a symbol and “au” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14
“A” frequency rank
#24
“au” frequency rank
38
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature A au
Definition En logique, symbole de la proposition universelle affirmative. Contraction de la préposition à et de l'article défini le.

Letter map: A vs au

Shared letters muted; letters that set A and au apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

1 ch
A
2 ch
au

Part-of-speech tell for A / au

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: A is asymbol and auanarticle. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “A” sits inside “au”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

A is recorded at frequency rank #14, classified as asymbol. au is at rank #24, tagged as anarticle, pronounced \o\.

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 38, this pair ranks #440,154 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of A vs au

Shared letters: a. Private to "A": -. Private to "au": u.

"A" · 1 letters · shape V  ·  "au" · 2 letters · shape VV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "A" and "au" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "A" is a symbol and "au" an article, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "A" or "au"?
"A" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14 in our French list, against #24 for "au". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "A" and "au".

  • Full dictionary entry for "A" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "au" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #440,154 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "A" and "au" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "au vs aur". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #440,154 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list