Which to use
“an” and “az” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #363
- “an” frequency rank
- #23,772
- “az” frequency rank
- 24135
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | an | az |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Temps que met la Terre à accomplir une révolution autour du Soleil et qui se divise en douze mois. Année (voir Notes plus bas). | Première lettre de l’alphabet glagolitique, Ⰰ. |
Where the eye mixes an and az
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Look-alike desk: an vs az
A purely visual mix-up. an (\ɑ̃\) and az (\az\) 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 a single letter - n in “an” becomes z in “az”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24135, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
an is recorded at frequency rank #363, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃\. az is at rank #23,772, tagged as anoun, pronounced \az\.
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 24135, this pair ranks #348,388 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of an vs az
Shared letters: a. Private to "an": n. Private to "az": z.
"an" · 2 letters · shape VC · "az" · 2 letters · shape VC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "an" and "az" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "an" or "az" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "an" and "az" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "an" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "az" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #348,388 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "an" and "az" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aur vs az". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #348,388 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.