Which to use
“aus” is a preposition and “auto” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #18,401
- “aus” frequency rank
- #1,803
- “auto” frequency rank
- 20204
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | aus | auto |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | De (désigne la provenance). | Automobile. |
Where the eye mixes aus and auto
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: aus vs auto
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: aus is \aʊ̯s\ while auto is \o.to\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20204, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
aus is recorded at frequency rank #18,401, classified as aprep, pronounced \aʊ̯s\. auto is at rank #1,803, tagged as anoun, pronounced \o.to\.
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 20204, this pair ranks #369,459 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of aus vs auto
Shared letters: au. Private to "aus": s. Private to "auto": ot.
"aus" · 3 letters · shape VVC · "auto" · 4 letters · shape VVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- auto ← atuo · auot · autto · uato
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "aus" and "auto" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "aus" or "auto"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "aus" and "auto" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "aus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "auto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #369,459 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "aus" and "auto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aus vs aves". 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 #369,459 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.