are vs auf, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#4,038
“are” frequency rank: #42,318
“auf” frequency rank: 46356
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	are	auf
Definition	unidade de medida de área equivalente a 100 metros quadrados	aberto

Where the eye mixes are and auf

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

3 ch

are

3 ch

auf

Visual trap between are and auf

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: are is /ˈa.ɾe/ while auf is /aʊ̯f/. 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 (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46356, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

are is recorded at frequency rank #4,038, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈa.ɾe/. 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 46356, this pair ranks #18,958 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of are vs auf

Shared letters: a. Private to "are": er. Private to "auf": fu.

"are" · 3 letters · shape VCV · "auf" · 3 letters · shape VVC

Frequently Asked Questions

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

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "are" is a noun and "auf" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "are" or "auf"?

"are" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,038 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 "are" 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 #18,958 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"are" and "auf" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acs vs auf". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #18,958 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.