arabesvsaubesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: arabes is a adjective, aubes is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#2,407
“arabes” frequency rank
#43,787
“aubes” frequency rank
46194
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature arabes aubes
Definition Pluriel de arabe. Pluriel de aube.

Where the eye mixes arabes and aubes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. arabes runs 6 letters (VCVCVC) against aubes's 5 (VVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
arabes
5 ch
aubes

Visual trap between arabes and aubes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: arabes is \a.ʁab\ while aubes is \ob\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46194, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

arabes is recorded at frequency rank #2,407, classified as anadj, pronounced \a.ʁab\. 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 46194, this pair ranks #196,866 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of arabes vs aubes

Shared letters: abes. Private to "arabes": r. Private to "aubes": u.

"arabes" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC  ·  "aubes" · 5 letters · shape VVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • arabes ← aarbes · arabbes · arabess · arabse · araebs · arbaes · arrabes · raabes
  • aubes ← aubbes · aubess · auebs · uabes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "arabes" for "aubes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "arabes" is an adjective and "aubes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "arabes" or "aubes"?
"arabes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,407 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "arabes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aubes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #196,866 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "arabes" and "aubes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aubes vs aves". 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 #196,866 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