ajoutervsavorterConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#1,648
“ajouter” frequency rank
#18,657
“avorter” frequency rank
20305
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ajouter avorter
Definition Mettre en plus. Mettre bas accidentellement un fœtus non viable (pour les femmes, on dit « faire une fausse couche »).

Where the eye mixes ajouter and avorter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
ajouter
7 ch
avorter

Why the eye confuses ajouter with avorter

A purely visual mix-up. ajouter (\a.ʒu.te\) and avorter (\a.vɔʁ.te\) 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 20305, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ajouter is recorded at frequency rank #1,648, classified as averb, pronounced \a.ʒu.te\. avorter is at rank #18,657, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.vɔʁ.te\.

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 20305, this pair ranks #368,944 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ajouter vs avorter

Shared letters: aeort. Private to "ajouter": ju. Private to "avorter": v.

"ajouter" · 7 letters · shape VCVVCVC  ·  "avorter" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ajouterajjouter · ajotuer · ajouetr · ajouterr · ajoutre · ajoutter · ajuoter · aojuter
  • avorteraovrter · avoretr · avorrter · avorterr · avortre · avortter · avotrer · avroter

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ajouter" and "avorter" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\a.ʒu.te\ versus \a.vɔʁ.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "ajouter" or "avorter"?
"ajouter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,648 in our French list, against #18,657 for "avorter". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ajouter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "avorter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #368,944 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ajouter" and "avorter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "avortée vs avorter". 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 #368,944 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