atoursvsavoirsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“atours” and “avoirs” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#43,281
“atours” frequency rank
#18,127
“avoirs” frequency rank
61408
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature atours avoirs
Definition Pluriel de atour. Pluriel de avoir.

Where the eye mixes atours and avoirs

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. atours and avoirs follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
atours
6 ch
avoirs

Look-alike desk: atours vs avoirs

A purely visual mix-up. atours (\a.tuʁ\) and avoirs (\a.vwaʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61408, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

atours is recorded at frequency rank #43,281, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.tuʁ\. avoirs is at rank #18,127, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.vwaʁ\.

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 61408, this pair ranks #92,467 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of atours vs avoirs

Shared letters: aors. Private to "atours": tu. Private to "avoirs": iv.

"atours" · 6 letters · shape VCVVCC  ·  "avoirs" · 6 letters · shape VCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • atours ← aoturs · atorus · atourrs · atourss · atousr · attours · atuors · taours
  • avoirs ← aovirs · aviors · avoirrs · avoirss · avoisr · avoris · avvoirs · vaoirs

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "atours" for "avoirs" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\a.tuʁ\ versus \a.vwaʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "atours" vs "avoirs" - which ranks higher?
"avoirs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,127 in our French list, against #43,281 for "atours". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "atours" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "avoirs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #92,467 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "atours" and "avoirs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "atos vs atours". 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 #92,467 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