apudvsaufWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: apud is a preposition, auf is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“apud” is a preposition and “auf” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,428
“apud” frequency rank
#42,318
“auf” frequency rank
82746
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature apud auf
Definition palavra latina usada para citações indiretas (citar documentos que não foram obtidos diretamente, mas por meio de outras obras) aberto

Letter map: apud vs auf

Shared letters muted; letters that set apud and auf apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. apud runs 4 letters (VCVC) against auf's 3 (VVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
apud
3 ch
auf

Grammar separator: apud vs auf

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: apud is apreposition and aufanadverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82746, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

apud is recorded at frequency rank #40,428, classified as aprep. 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 82746, this pair ranks #991 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of apud vs auf

Shared letters: au. Private to "apud": dp. Private to "auf": f.

"apud" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "auf" · 3 letters · shape VVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • apud ← apdu · appud · apudd · aupd · paud

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "apud" and "auf" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "apud" is a preposition and "auf" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "apud" or "auf"?
"apud" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,428 in our Portuguese list, against #42,318 for "auf". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "apud" and "auf".

  • Full dictionary entry for "apud" 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 #991 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "apud" and "auf" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs auf". 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 #991 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list