an vs auf, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“an” and “auf” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,817
“an” frequency rank: #42,318
“auf” frequency rank: 45135
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	an	auf
Definition	ligado, aceso:	aberto

Where the eye mixes an and auf

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

2 ch

3 ch

auf

Visual trap between an and auf

A purely visual mix-up. an (/an/) and auf (/aʊ̯f/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45135, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

an is recorded at frequency rank #2,817, classified as anadv, pronounced /an/. auf is at rank #42,318, tagged as anadv, pronounced /aʊ̯f/.

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 45135, this pair ranks #20,287 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of an vs auf

Shared letters: a. Private to "an": n. Private to "auf": fu.

"an" · 2 letters · shape VC · "auf" · 3 letters · shape VVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "an" and "auf" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No. They are said differently (/an/ versus /aʊ̯f/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "an" or "auf" show up more?

"an" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,817 in our Portuguese list, against #42,318 for "auf". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

Full dictionary entry for "an" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "auf" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #20,287 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"an" and "auf" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs auf". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #20,287 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.