Which to use
“appui” and “apu” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,755
- “appui” frequency rank
- #48,918
- “apu” frequency rank
- 51673
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | appui | apu |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ce qui sert à soutenir une chose ou une personne pour l’empêcher de tomber, de chanceler, etc. | Banquise. |
Where the eye mixes appui and apu
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between appui and apu
A purely visual mix-up. appui (\a.pɥi\) and apu (\a.pu\) 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 51673, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
appui is recorded at frequency rank #2,755, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.pɥi\. apu is at rank #48,918, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.pu\.
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 51673, this pair ranks #153,271 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of appui vs apu
Shared letters: apu. Private to "appui": i. Private to "apu": -.
"appui" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV · "apu" · 3 letters · shape VCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- appui ← appiu · apui · apupi · papui
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "appui" for "apu" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "appui" or "apu" show up more?
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 "appui" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "apu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #153,271 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "appui" and "apu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "apu vs aur". 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 #153,271 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.