Which to use
“au” is an article and “aune” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #24
- “au” frequency rank
- #24,115
- “aune” frequency rank
- 24139
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | au | aune |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Contraction de la préposition à et de l'article défini le. | Mesure ancienne équivalant à 1,188 mètre instaurée par l’édit royal de François Iᵉʳ pour tenter d’harmoniser les mesures de longueur, mais qui prit selon les lieux diverses valeurs. |
Where the eye mixes au and aune
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between au and aune
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: au is \o\ while aune is \on\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “au” sits inside “aune”, and the parts of speech differ too (article vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24139, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
au is recorded at frequency rank #24, classified as anarticle, pronounced \o\. aune is at rank #24,115, tagged as anoun, pronounced \on\.
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 24139, this pair ranks #348,360 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of au vs aune
Shared letters: au. Private to "au": -. Private to "aune": en.
"au" · 2 letters · shape VV · "aune" · 4 letters · shape VVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- aune ← anue · auen · aunne · uane
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "au" and "aune" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "au" or "aune" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "au" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "aune" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #348,360 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "au" and "aune" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aune 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 #348,360 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.