agirvsaurWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: agir is a verb, aur is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“agir” is a verb and “aur” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,760
“agir” frequency rank
#49,504
“aur” frequency rank
51264
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature agir aur
Definition Faire quelque chose. Or. Élément chimique de numéro atomique 79 et de symbole Au qui fait partie des métaux de transition.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set agir and aur apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
agir
3 ch
aur

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: agir is \a.ʒiʁ\ while aur is \ˈawɾ\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51264, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

agir is recorded at frequency rank #1,760, classified as averb, pronounced \a.ʒiʁ\. aur is at rank #49,504, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈawɾ\.

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 51264, this pair ranks #156,351 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of agir vs aur

Shared letters: ar. Private to "agir": gi. Private to "aur": u.

"agir" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "aur" · 3 letters · shape VVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • agiraggir · agirr · aigr · gair

Frequency comparison

agir#1,760
aur#49,504

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "agir" and "aur" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "agir" is a verb and "aur" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "agir" or "aur"?
"agir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,760 in our French list, against #49,504 for "aur". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering agir vs aur

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “agir”; for a noun, it's “aur”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “agir” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list