afinvsamiTell them apart

Quick tell: afin is a conjunction, ami is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“afin” is a conjunction and “ami” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#395
“afin” frequency rank
#665
“ami” frequency rank
1060
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature afin ami
Definition Mot invariable ne s'employant que dans les locutions prépositive « afin de » (+ infinitif) ou conjonctive « afin que » (+ verbe au subjonctif), permettant d’indiquer dans les constructions le(s) but(s) poursuivi(s). Qui est bienveillant, obligeant, amical.

Where the eye mixes afin and ami

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

4 ch
afin
3 ch
ami

Visual trap between afin and ami

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: afin is \a.fɛ̃\ while ami is \a.mi\. 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 (conjunction vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1060, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

afin is recorded at frequency rank #395, classified as aconj, pronounced \a.fɛ̃\. ami is at rank #665, tagged as anadj, pronounced \a.mi\.

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 1060, this pair ranks #438,693 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of afin vs ami

Shared letters: ai. Private to "afin": fn. Private to "ami": m.

"afin" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "ami" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • afinaffin · afinn · afni · aifn · fain

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "afin" and "ami" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "afin" is a conjunction and "ami" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "afin" or "ami"?
"afin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #395 in our French list, against #665 for "ami". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "afin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ami" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #438,693 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "afin" and "ami" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ami 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 #438,693 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