alonevsavouéConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#21,524
“alone” frequency rank
#7,786
“avoué” frequency rank
29310
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alone avoué
Definition Seul, tout seul, solitaire. Qui est reconnu comme vrai.

Where the eye mixes alone and avoué

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
alone
5 ch
avoué

Why the eye confuses alone with avoué

A purely visual mix-up. alone ([ə.ˈloʊn]) and avoué (\a.vwe\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29310, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alone is recorded at frequency rank #21,524, classified as anadj, pronounced [ə.ˈloʊn]. avoué is at rank #7,786, tagged as anadj, pronounced \a.vwe\.

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 29310, this pair ranks #317,477 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of alone vs avoué

Shared letters: ao. Private to "alone": eln. Private to "avoué": uvé.

"alone" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "avoué" · 5 letters · shape VCVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aloneallone · alnoe · aloen · alonne · aolne · laone

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "alone" and "avoué" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ə.ˈloʊn] versus \a.vwe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "alone" vs "avoué" - which ranks higher?
"avoué" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,786 in our French list, against #21,524 for "alone". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "alone" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "avoué" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #317,477 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "alone" and "avoué" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alizé vs alone". 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 #317,477 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