aboisvsavoirWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: abois is a noun, avoir is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#34,382
“abois” frequency rank
#81
“avoir” frequency rank
34463
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature abois avoir
Definition Pluriel d’aboi. Être en relation possessive, soit concrète ou abstraite, soit permanente ou occasionnelle, dont le possesseur est le sujet et le possédé est le complément d’objet direct.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set abois and avoir apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
abois
5 ch
avoir

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: abois is \a.bwa\ while avoir is \a.vwaʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34463, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

abois is recorded at frequency rank #34,382, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.bwa\. avoir is at rank #81, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.vwaʁ\.

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 34463, this pair ranks #283,651 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of abois vs avoir

Shared letters: aio. Private to "abois": bs. Private to "avoir": rv.

"abois" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC  ·  "avoir" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aboisabbois · abios · aboiss · abosi · aobis · baois
  • avoiraovir · avior · avoirr · avori · avvoir · vaoir

Frequency comparison

abois#34,382
avoir#81

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "abois" and "avoir" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "abois" is a noun and "avoir" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "abois" or "avoir"?
"avoir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #81 in our French list, against #34,382 for "abois". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering abois vs avoir

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “abois”; for a verb, it's “avoir”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “abois” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list