amivsaurWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#665
“ami” frequency rank
#49,504
“aur” frequency rank
50169
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ami aur
Definition Qui est bienveillant, obligeant, amical. Or. Élément chimique de numéro atomique 79 et de symbole Au qui fait partie des métaux de transition.

Where the eye mixes ami and aur

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

3 ch
ami
3 ch
aur

Look-alike desk: ami vs aur

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ami is \a.mi\ while aur is \ˈawɾ\. 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 50169, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ami is recorded at frequency rank #665, classified as anadj, pronounced \a.mi\. aur is at rank #49,504, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈawɾ\.

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 50169, this pair ranks #164,749 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ami vs aur

Shared letters: a. Private to "ami": im. Private to "aur": ru.

"ami" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "aur" · 3 letters · shape VVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ami" and "aur" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ami" is an adjective and "aur" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "ami" or "aur" show up more?
"ami" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #665 in our French list, against #49,504 for "aur". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "ami" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #164,749 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ami" and "aur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ahn vs aur". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #164,749 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