Which to use
“au” is an article and “aur” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #24
- “au” frequency rank
- #49,504
- “aur” frequency rank
- 49528
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | au | aur |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Contraction de la préposition à et de l'article défini le. | Or. Élément chimique de numéro atomique 79 et de symbole Au qui fait partie des métaux de transition. |
Where the eye mixes au and aur
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between au and aur
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: au is \o\ while aur is \ˈawɾ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “au” sits inside “aur”, and the parts of speech differ too (article vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49528, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
au is recorded at frequency rank #24, classified as anarticle, pronounced \o\. aur is at rank #49,504, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈawɾ\.
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 49528, this pair ranks #169,900 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of au vs aur
Shared letters: au. Private to "au": -. Private to "aur": r.
"au" · 2 letters · shape VV · "aur" · 3 letters · shape VVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "au" and "aur" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "au" or "aur" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "au" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "aur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #169,900 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "au" and "aur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ahn vs aur". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #169,900 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.