Which to use
“auto” is a noun and “autour” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,803
- “auto” frequency rank
- #502
- “autour” frequency rank
- 2305
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | auto | autour |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Automobile. | Aux alentours ; aux environs. |
Where the eye mixes auto and autour
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between auto and autour
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: auto is \o.to\ while autour is \o.tuʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “auto” sits inside “autour”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2305, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
auto is recorded at frequency rank #1,803, classified as anoun, pronounced \o.to\. autour is at rank #502, tagged as anadv, 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 2305, this pair ranks #436,388 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of auto vs autour
Shared letters: aotu. Private to "auto": -. Private to "autour": r.
"auto" · 4 letters · shape VVCV · "autour" · 6 letters · shape VVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "auto" for "autour" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "auto" or "autour" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "auto" and "autour" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "auto" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "autour" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #436,388 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "auto" and "autour" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aur vs auto". 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 #436,388 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.