AffevsAueTell them apart

Which to use

“Affe” and “Aue” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#12,017
“Affe” frequency rank
#12,230
“Aue” frequency rank
24247
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Affe Aue
Definition Säugetier aus der Unterordnung Anthropoidea in der Ordnung der Primaten flaches, feuchtes, am Wasser gelegenes Gelände, oft mit Büschen und einzelnen Bäumen bestandene Wiesen

Where the eye mixes Affe and Aue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Affe
3 ch
Aue

Visual trap between Affe and Aue

A purely visual mix-up. Affe ([ˈafə]) and Aue ([ˈaʊ̯ə]) 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 24247, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Affe is recorded at frequency rank #12,017, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈafə]. Aue is at rank #12,230, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈaʊ̯ə].

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 24247, this pair ranks #1,850,366 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Affe vs Aue

Shared letters: ae. Private to "Affe": f. Private to "Aue": u.

"Affe" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "Aue" · 3 letters · shape VVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Affeafe · afef · fafe

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Affe" and "Aue" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈafə] versus [ˈaʊ̯ə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "Affe" or "Aue" show up more?
"Affe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,017 in our German list, against #12,230 for "Aue". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "Affe" and "Aue" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Affe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Aue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,850,366 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Affe" and "Aue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "AUD vs Aue". 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 #1,850,366 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