allvsawTell them apart

Which to use

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

#3,589
“all” frequency rank
#26,972
“aw” frequency rank
30561
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature all aw
Definition Tout, tous. Âgé, vieux, ancien.

Where the eye mixes all and aw

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

3 ch
all
2 ch
aw

Look-alike desk: all vs aw

A purely visual mix-up. all (\al\) and aw (\ɑβ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30561, 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\. aw is at rank #26,972, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɑβ\.

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 30561, this pair ranks #309,479 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of all vs aw

Shared letters: a. Private to "all": l. Private to "aw": w.

"all" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "aw" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "all" for "aw" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\al\ versus \ɑβ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "all" vs "aw" - which ranks higher?
"all" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,589 in our French list, against #26,972 for "aw". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "all" and "aw" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "all" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aw" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #309,479 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "all" and "aw" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aur vs aw". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #309,479 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