apôtresvsaprèsWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: apôtres is a noun, après is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“apôtres” is a noun and “après” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,732
“apôtres” frequency rank
#76
“après” frequency rank
13808
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature apôtres après
Definition Pluriel de apôtre. Marque la postériorité dans le temps.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set apôtres and après apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
apôtres
5 ch
après

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: apôtres is \a.pɔtʁ\ while après is \a.pʁɛ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13808, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

apôtres is recorded at frequency rank #13,732, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.pɔtʁ\. après is at rank #76, tagged as aprep, pronounced \a.pʁɛ\.

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 13808, this pair ranks #399,458 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of apôtres vs après

Shared letters: aprs. Private to "apôtres": etô. Private to "après": è.

"apôtres" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC  ·  "après" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Frequency comparison

apôtres#13,732
après#76

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "apôtres" and "après" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "apôtres" is a noun and "après" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "apôtres" or "après"?
"après" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #76 in our French list, against #13,732 for "apôtres". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering apôtres vs après

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “apôtres”; for a preposition, it's “après”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “apôtres” 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