allvsapuWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: all is a adjective, apu is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“all” is an adjective and “apu” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,589
“all” frequency rank
#48,918
“apu” frequency rank
52507
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature all apu
Definition Tout, tous. Banquise.

Where the eye mixes all and apu

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
all
3 ch
apu

Look-alike desk: all vs apu

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: all is \al\ while apu is \a.pu\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52507, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

all is recorded at frequency rank #3,589, classified as anadj, pronounced \al\. apu is at rank #48,918, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.pu\.

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 52507, this pair ranks #147,244 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of all vs apu

Shared letters: a. Private to "all": l. Private to "apu": pu.

"all" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "apu" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "all" and "apu" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "all" is an adjective and "apu" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "all" vs "apu" - which ranks higher?
"all" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,589 in our French list, against #48,918 for "apu". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "all" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "apu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #147,244 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "all" and "apu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "apu vs aur". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #147,244 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