AalevsalleWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Aale is a noun, alle is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#47,176
“Aale” frequency rank
#80
“alle” frequency rank
47256
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Aale alle
Definition Dativ Singular des Substantivs Aal mitteldeutsch und norddeutsch, umgangssprachlich:' leer, nicht mehr vorrätig

Same sound, different letters: Aale vs alle

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters. Aale (VVCV) and alle (VCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
Aale
4 ch
alle

Homophone desk: Aale vs alle

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: Aale and alle carry the same recorded pronunciation, [ˈaːlə]. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadverb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by a single letter - a in “Aale” becomes l in “alle”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47256, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Aale is recorded at frequency rank #47,176, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈaːlə]. alle is at rank #80, tagged as anadv, pronounced [ˈalə].

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 47256, this pair ranks #1,290,756 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Aale vs alle

Shared letters: ael. Private to "Aale": -. Private to "alle": -.

"Aale" · 4 letters · shape VVCV  ·  "alle" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Aale ← aael · aalle · alae
  • alle ← alel · lale

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Aale" for "alle" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Aale" is a noun and "alle" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Aale" vs "alle" - which ranks higher?
"alle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #80 in our German list, against #47,176 for "Aale". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Aale" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "alle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,290,756 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Aale" and "alle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Aale vs Atze". 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 #1,290,756 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list