après vs aubes, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#76
“après” frequency rank: #43,787
“aubes” frequency rank: 43863
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	après	aubes
Definition	Marque la postériorité dans le temps.	Pluriel de aube.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set après and aubes apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

après

5 ch

aubes

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: après is \a.pʁɛ\ while aubes is \ob\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43863, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

après is recorded at frequency rank #76, classified as aprep, pronounced \a.pʁɛ\. aubes is at rank #43,787, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ob\.

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 43863, this pair ranks #214,810 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of après vs aubes

Shared letters: as. Private to "après": prè. Private to "aubes": beu.

"après" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC · "aubes" · 5 letters · shape VVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

aubes ← aubbes · aubess · auebs · uabes

Frequency comparison

après#76

aubes#43,787

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "après" and "aubes" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "après" is a preposition and "aubes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "après" or "aubes"?

"après" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #76 in our French list, against #43,787 for "aubes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering après vs aubes

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a preposition, it's “après”; for a noun, it's “aubes”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “après” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable