aigrevsautreWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#31,810
“aigre” frequency rank
#96
“autre” frequency rank
31906
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aigre autre
Definition Qui a une saveur acide et amère provoquant un sentiment désagréable. Du même type mais dont l’identité est différente de ce dont on vient de parler.

Where the eye mixes aigre and autre

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. aigre and autre follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
aigre
5 ch
autre

Why the eye confuses aigre with autre

A purely visual mix-up. aigre (\ɛɡʁ\) and autre (\otʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31906, 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\. autre is at rank #96, tagged as anadj, pronounced \otʁ\.

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 31906, this pair ranks #300,808 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of aigre vs autre

Shared letters: aer. Private to "aigre": gi. Private to "autre": tu.

"aigre" · 5 letters · shape VVCCV  ·  "autre" · 5 letters · shape VVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aigre ← agire · aiger · aiggre · aigrre · airge · iagre
  • autre ← ature · aurte · auter · autrre · auttre · uatre

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "aigre" for "autre" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɛɡʁ\ versus \otʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "aigre" vs "autre" - which ranks higher?
"autre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #96 in our French list, against #31,810 for "aigre". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "aigre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "autre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #300,808 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aigre" and "autre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aigre vs Aure". 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 #300,808 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