Which to use
“ago” is a postp and “agora” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #32,663
- “ago” frequency rank
- #24,464
- “agora” frequency rank
- 57127
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ago | agora |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Il y a (dans le passé). | Place publique, chez les Grecs, qui servait pour le marché et pour certains actes civils et politiques. |
Where the eye mixes ago and agora
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. ago runs 3 letters (VCV) against agora's 5 (VCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses ago with agora
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ago is \ə.ˈɡoʊ\ while agora is \a.ɡɔ.ʁa\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “ago” sits inside “agora”, and the parts of speech differ too (postp vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57127, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ago is recorded at frequency rank #32,663, classified as apostp, pronounced \ə.ˈɡoʊ\. agora is at rank #24,464, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.ɡɔ.ʁa\.
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 57127, this pair ranks #116,898 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ago vs agora
Shared letters: ago. Private to "ago": -. Private to "agora": r.
"ago" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "agora" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- agora ← aggora · agoar · agorra · agroa · aogra · gaora
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ago" for "agora" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "ago" or "agora" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "ago" and "agora" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "ago" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "agora" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #116,898 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ago" and "agora" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ago 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 #116,898 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.