aucunvsaucuneWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#299
“aucun” frequency rank
#342
“aucune” frequency rank
641
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aucun aucune
Definition Nul ; pas un (associé à une négation : ne, sans …). Féminin singulier de aucun.

Where the eye mixes aucun and aucune

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
aucun
6 ch
aucune

Visual trap between aucun and aucune

A purely visual mix-up. aucun (\o.kœ̃\) and aucune (\o.kyn\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “aucun” sits inside “aucune”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 641, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aucun is recorded at frequency rank #299, classified as anadj, pronounced \o.kœ̃\. aucune is at rank #342, tagged as anadj, pronounced \o.kyn\.

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 641, this pair ranks #439,346 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of aucun vs aucune

Shared letters: acnu. Private to "aucun": -. Private to "aucune": e.

"aucun" · 5 letters · shape VVCVC  ·  "aucune" · 6 letters · shape VVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aucunacuun · auccun · aucnu · aucunn · auucn · uacun
  • aucuneacuune · auccune · aucnue · aucuen · aucunne · auucne · uacune

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "aucun" and "aucune" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\o.kœ̃\ versus \o.kyn\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "aucun" vs "aucune" - which ranks higher?
"aucun" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #299 in our French list, against #342 for "aucune". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "aucun" and "aucune" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "aucun" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aucune" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #439,346 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aucun" and "aucune" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aucune vs aumône". 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 #439,346 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