AalevsatmeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Aale is a noun, atme is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#47,176
“Aale” frequency rank
#26,758
“atme” frequency rank
73934
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Aale atme
Definition Dativ Singular des Substantivs Aal 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs atmen

Where the eye mixes Aale and atme

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. Aale (VVCV) and atme (VCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
Aale
4 ch
atme

Why the eye confuses Aale with atme

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Aale is [ˈaːlə] while atme is [ˈaːtmə]. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73934, 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]. atme is at rank #26,758, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈaːtmə].

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 73934, this pair ranks #347,028 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Aale vs atme

Shared letters: ae. Private to "Aale": l. Private to "atme": mt.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Aale ← aael · aalle · alae
  • atme ← amte · atmme · attme · tame

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Aale" for "atme" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Aale" is a noun and "atme" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Aale" or "atme"?
"atme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,758 in our German list, against #47,176 for "Aale". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Aale" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "atme" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #347,028 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Aale" and "atme" 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 #347,028 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