abrivsargTell them apart

Quick tell: abri is a noun, arg is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“abri” is a noun and “arg” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,118
“abri” frequency rank
#34,419
“arg” frequency rank
37537
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature abri arg
Definition Lieu où on peut se mettre à couvert, se protéger des intempéries ou d'un danger. Mauvais.

Where the eye mixes abri and arg

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
abri
3 ch
arg

Why the eye confuses abri with arg

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: abri is \a.bʁi\ while arg is \ark\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37537, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

abri is recorded at frequency rank #3,118, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.bʁi\. arg is at rank #34,419, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ark\.

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 37537, this pair ranks #261,792 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of abri vs arg

Shared letters: ar. Private to "abri": bi. Private to "arg": g.

"abri" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "arg" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • abriabbri · abir · abrri · arbi

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "abri" and "arg" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "abri" is a noun and "arg" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "abri" vs "arg" - which ranks higher?
"abri" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,118 in our French list, against #34,419 for "arg". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "abri" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "arg" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #261,792 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "abri" and "arg" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arg vs aur". 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 #261,792 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