auteursvsautoursWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,619
“auteurs” frequency rank
#35,819
“autours” frequency rank
37438
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature auteurs autours
Definition Pluriel de auteur. Pluriel de autour.

Where the eye mixes auteurs and autours

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. auteurs and autours follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VVCVVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
auteurs
7 ch
autours

Look-alike desk: auteurs vs autours

A purely visual mix-up. auteurs (\o.tœʁ\) and autours (\o.tuʁ\) 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 a single letter - e in “auteurs” becomes o in “autours”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37438, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

auteurs is recorded at frequency rank #1,619, classified as anoun, pronounced \o.tœʁ\. autours is at rank #35,819, tagged as anoun, pronounced \o.tuʁ\.

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 37438, this pair ranks #262,523 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of auteurs vs autours

Shared letters: arstu. Private to "auteurs": e. Private to "autours": o.

"auteurs" · 7 letters · shape VVCVVCC  ·  "autours" · 7 letters · shape VVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • auteurs ← atueurs · aueturs · auterus · auteurrs · auteurss · auteusr · autteurs · autuers
  • autours ← atuours · auoturs · autorus · autourrs · autourss · autousr · auttours · autuors

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "auteurs" and "autours" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\o.tœʁ\ versus \o.tuʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "auteurs" vs "autours" - which ranks higher?
"auteurs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,619 in our French list, against #35,819 for "autours". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "auteurs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "autours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #262,523 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "auteurs" and "autours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "atours vs autours". 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 #262,523 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