arsvsauxWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: ars is a noun, aux is an article, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ars” is a noun and “aux” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,805
“ars” frequency rank
#58
“aux” frequency rank
15863
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ars aux
Definition Pli formé par la réunion des membres antérieurs et du poitrail du cheval. Contraction obligatoire de la préposition à et de l'article défini les.

Where the eye mixes ars and aux

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
ars
3 ch
aux

Why the eye confuses ars with aux

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ars is \aʁ\ while aux is \o\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs article), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15863, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ars is recorded at frequency rank #15,805, classified as anoun, pronounced \aʁ\. aux is at rank #58, tagged as anarticle, pronounced \o\.

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 15863, this pair ranks #390,523 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ars vs aux

Shared letters: a. Private to "ars": rs. Private to "aux": ux.

"ars" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "aux" · 3 letters · shape VVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ars" and "aux" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ars" is a noun and "aux" an article, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ars" or "aux"?
"aux" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #58 in our French list, against #15,805 for "ars". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ars" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #390,523 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ars" and "aux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ars vs aves". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #390,523 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