amourvsaurWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#408
“amour” frequency rank
#49,504
“aur” frequency rank
49912
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature amour aur
Definition Sentiment intense et agréable qui incite les êtres à s’unir. Or. Élément chimique de numéro atomique 79 et de symbole Au qui fait partie des métaux de transition.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set amour and aur apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
amour
3 ch
aur

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. amour (\a.muʁ\) and aur (\ˈawɾ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49912, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

amour is recorded at frequency rank #408, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.muʁ\. 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 49912, this pair ranks #166,864 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of amour vs aur

Shared letters: aru. Private to "amour": mo. Private to "aur": -.

"amour" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC  ·  "aur" · 3 letters · shape VVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • amourammour · amoru · amourr · amuor · aomur · maour

Frequency comparison

amour#408
aur#49,504

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "amour" and "aur" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\a.muʁ\ versus \ˈawɾ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "amour" or "aur"?
"amour" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #408 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.

Remembering amour vs aur

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “amour” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list