Which to use
“autour” is an adverb and “autrui” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #502
- “autour” frequency rank
- #6,052
- “autrui” frequency rank
- 6554
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | autour | autrui |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Aux alentours ; aux environs. | Les autres personnes, une autre personne, le prochain. |
Where the eye mixes autour and autrui
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. autour (VVCVVC) and autrui (VVCCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: autour vs autrui
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: autour is \o.tuʁ\ while autrui is \o.tʁɥi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6554, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
autour is recorded at frequency rank #502, classified as anadv, pronounced \o.tuʁ\. autrui is at rank #6,052, tagged as apron, pronounced \o.tʁɥi\.
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 6554, this pair ranks #425,903 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of autour vs autrui
Shared letters: artu. Private to "autour": o. Private to "autrui": i.
"autour" · 6 letters · shape VVCVVC · "autrui" · 6 letters · shape VVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "autour" and "autrui" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "autour" vs "autrui" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "autour" and "autrui" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "autour" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "autrui" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #425,903 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "autour" and "autrui" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "astor vs autour". 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 #425,903 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.