aigrevsAugeTell them apart

Quick tell: aigre is a adjective, Auge is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“aigre” is an adjective and “Auge” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,810
“aigre” frequency rank
#34,879
“Auge” frequency rank
66689
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aigre Auge
Definition Qui a une saveur acide et amère provoquant un sentiment désagréable. Commune française, située dans le département des Ardennes.

Where the eye mixes aigre and Auge

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. aigre runs 5 letters (VVCCV) against Auge's 4 (VVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
aigre
4 ch
Auge

Why the eye confuses aigre with Auge

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: aigre is \ɛɡʁ\ while Auge is \oʒ\. 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 (adjective vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66689, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aigre is recorded at frequency rank #31,810, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛɡʁ\. Auge is at rank #34,879, tagged as aname, pronounced \oʒ\.

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 66689, this pair ranks #66,720 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of aigre vs Auge

Shared letters: aeg. Private to "aigre": ir. Private to "Auge": u.

"aigre" · 5 letters · shape VVCCV  ·  "Auge" · 4 letters · shape VVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aigre ← agire · aiger · aiggre · aigrre · airge · iagre
  • Auge ← ague · aueg · augge · uage

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "aigre" for "Auge" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "aigre" is an adjective and "Auge" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "aigre" vs "Auge" - which ranks higher?
"aigre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,810 in our French list, against #34,879 for "Auge". 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 "aigre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Auge" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #66,720 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aigre" and "Auge" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Auge 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 #66,720 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