aboutirvsajouterTell them apart

Which to use

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

#7,777
“aboutir” frequency rank
#1,648
“ajouter” frequency rank
9425
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aboutir ajouter
Definition Toucher par un bout. Mettre en plus.

Where the eye mixes aboutir and ajouter

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

7 ch
aboutir
7 ch
ajouter

Visual trap between aboutir and ajouter

A purely visual mix-up. aboutir (\a.bu.tiʁ\) and ajouter (\a.ʒu.te\) 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 9425, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aboutir is recorded at frequency rank #7,777, classified as averb, pronounced \a.bu.tiʁ\. ajouter is at rank #1,648, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.ʒu.te\.

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 9425, this pair ranks #416,687 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of aboutir vs ajouter

Shared letters: aortu. Private to "aboutir": bi. Private to "ajouter": ej.

"aboutir" · 7 letters · shape VCVVCVC  ·  "ajouter" · 7 letters · shape VCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aboutirabboutir · abotuir · abouitr · aboutirr · aboutri · abouttir · abuotir · aobutir
  • ajouterajjouter · ajotuer · ajouetr · ajouterr · ajoutre · ajoutter · ajuoter · aojuter

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "aboutir" for "ajouter" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\a.bu.tiʁ\ versus \a.ʒu.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "aboutir" vs "ajouter" - which ranks higher?
"ajouter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,648 in our French list, against #7,777 for "aboutir". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "aboutir" and "ajouter" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "aboutir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ajouter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #416,687 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aboutir" and "ajouter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aboutie vs aboutir". 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 #416,687 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