autobusvsautosWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#7,149
“autobus” frequency rank
#18,656
“autos” frequency rank
25805
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature autobus autos
Definition Véhicule de transports en commun, sur des lignes urbaines régulières, comptant des places pour voyager assis et d’autres pour voyager debout. Pluriel de auto.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set autobus and autos apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
autobus
5 ch
autos

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. autobus (\o.tɔ.bys\) and autos (\ɔ.to\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25805, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

autobus is recorded at frequency rank #7,149, classified as anoun, pronounced \o.tɔ.bys\. autos is at rank #18,656, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɔ.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 25805, this pair ranks #338,742 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of autobus vs autos

Shared letters: aostu. Private to "autobus": b. Private to "autos": -.

"autobus" · 7 letters · shape VVCVCVC  ·  "autos" · 5 letters · shape VVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • autobusatuobus · auotbus · autbous · autobbus · autobsu · autobuss · autoubs · auttobus
  • autosatuos · auots · autoss · autso · auttos · uatos

Frequency comparison

autobus#7,149
autos#18,656

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "autobus" and "autos" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\o.tɔ.bys\ versus \ɔ.to\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "autobus" or "autos"?
"autobus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,149 in our French list, against #18,656 for "autos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering autobus vs autos

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “autobus” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list