acteursvsautoursTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,617
“acteurs” frequency rank
#35,819
“autours” frequency rank
37436
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acteurs autours
Definition Pluriel de acteur. Pluriel de autour.

Where the eye mixes acteurs and autours

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. acteurs (VCCVVCC) and autours (VVCVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
acteurs
7 ch
autours

Look-alike desk: acteurs vs autours

A purely visual mix-up. acteurs (\ak.tœʁ\) and autours (\o.tuʁ\) 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 37436, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acteurs is recorded at frequency rank #1,617, classified as anoun, pronounced \ak.tœʁ\. autours is at rank #35,819, tagged as anoun, pronounced \o.tuʁ\.

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 37436, this pair ranks #262,543 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of acteurs vs autours

Shared letters: arstu. Private to "acteurs": ce. Private to "autours": o.

"acteurs" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCC  ·  "autours" · 7 letters · shape VVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • acteurs ← accteurs · aceturs · acterus · acteurrs · acteurss · acteusr · actteurs · actuers
  • autours ← atuours · auoturs · autorus · autourrs · autourss · autousr · auttours · autuors

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "acteurs" for "autours" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ak.tœʁ\ versus \o.tuʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "acteurs" or "autours"?
"acteurs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,617 in our French list, against #35,819 for "autours". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "acteurs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "autours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #262,543 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acteurs" and "autours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "atours vs autours". 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 #262,543 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