amoursvsautoursWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#7,271
“amours” frequency rank
#35,819
“autours” frequency rank
43090
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature amours autours
Definition Pluriel d’amour. Pluriel de autour.

Where the eye mixes amours and autours

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. amours runs 6 letters (VCVVCC) against autours's 7 (VVCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
amours
7 ch
autours

Why the eye confuses amours with autours

A purely visual mix-up. amours (\a.muʁ\) and autours (\o.tuʁ\) 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 43090, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

amours is recorded at frequency rank #7,271, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.muʁ\. autours is at rank #35,819, tagged as anoun, pronounced \o.tuʁ\.

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 43090, this pair ranks #220,701 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of amours vs autours

Shared letters: aorsu. Private to "amours": m. Private to "autours": t.

"amours" · 6 letters · shape VCVVCC  ·  "autours" · 7 letters · shape VVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • amours ← ammours · amorus · amourrs · amourss · amousr · amuors · aomurs · maours
  • autours ← atuours · auoturs · autorus · autourrs · autourss · autousr · auttours · autuors

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "amours" and "autours" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\a.muʁ\ versus \o.tuʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "amours" or "autours"?
"amours" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,271 in our French list, against #35,819 for "autours". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "amours" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "autours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #220,701 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "amours" and "autours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "atours vs autours". 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 #220,701 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