abonnervsaborderWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“abonner” and “aborder” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#15,790
“abonner” frequency rank
#5,516
“aborder” frequency rank
21306
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature abonner aborder
Definition Aborner, fixer par des bornes les limites d’un champ. Arriver au bord, prendre terre.

Where the eye mixes abonner and aborder

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
abonner
7 ch
aborder

Why the eye confuses abonner with aborder

A purely visual mix-up. abonner (\a.bɔ.ne\) and aborder (\a.bɔʁ.de\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21306, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

abonner is recorded at frequency rank #15,790, classified as averb, pronounced \a.bɔ.ne\. aborder is at rank #5,516, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.bɔʁ.de\.

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 21306, this pair ranks #363,853 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of abonner vs aborder

Shared letters: abeor. Private to "abonner": n. Private to "aborder": d.

"abonner" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC  ·  "aborder" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • abonnerabbonner · abnoner · abonenr · aboner · abonnerr · abonnre · aobnner · baonner
  • aborderabborder · abodrer · abordder · aborderr · abordre · aboredr · aborrder · abroder

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "abonner" for "aborder" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\a.bɔ.ne\ versus \a.bɔʁ.de\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "abonner" vs "aborder" - which ranks higher?
"aborder" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,516 in our French list, against #15,790 for "abonner". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "abonner" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aborder" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #363,853 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "abonner" and "aborder" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "abonnées vs abonner". 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 #363,853 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