ADR vs an, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#45,414
“ADR” frequency rank: #363
“an” frequency rank: 45777
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ADR	an
Definition	Accord relatif au transport international des marchandises dangereuses par route, fixant les conditions d’emballage, d’étiquetage des marchandises dangereuses, ainsi que celles concernant les véhicules utilisés et le transport lui-même.	Temps que met la Terre à accomplir une révolution autour du Soleil et qui se divise en douze mois. Année (voir Notes plus bas).

Where the eye mixes ADR and an

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch

ADR

2 ch

Look-alike desk: ADR vs an

A purely visual mix-up. ADR (\ɑ.de.ɛʁ\) and an (\ɑ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45777, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ADR is recorded at frequency rank #45,414, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɑ.de.ɛʁ\. an is at rank #363, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃\.

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 45777, this pair ranks #200,125 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ADR vs an

Shared letters: a. Private to "ADR": dr. Private to "an": n.

"ADR" · 3 letters · shape VCC · "an" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ADR" for "an" ever safe?

No. They are said differently (\ɑ.de.ɛʁ\ versus \ɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

In ordinary French text, does "ADR" or "an" show up more?

"an" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #363 in our French list, against #45,414 for "ADR". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

Full dictionary entry for "ADR" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "an" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #200,125 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ADR" and "an" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ADR vs aur". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #200,125 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.