AffevsaufsTell them apart

Quick tell: Affe is a noun, aufs is an abbrev, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Affe” is a noun and “aufs” is an abbrev - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,017
“Affe” frequency rank
#1,005
“aufs” frequency rank
13022
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Affe aufs
Definition Säugetier aus der Unterordnung Anthropoidea in der Ordnung der Primaten auf das

Where the eye mixes Affe and aufs

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

4 ch
Affe
4 ch
aufs

Why the eye confuses Affe with aufs

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Affe is [ˈafə] while aufs is [aʊ̯fs]. 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 abbrev), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13022, 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]. aufs is at rank #1,005, tagged as anabbrev, pronounced [aʊ̯fs].

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 13022, this pair ranks #1,960,596 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Affe vs aufs

Shared letters: af. Private to "Affe": e. Private to "aufs": su.

"Affe" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "aufs" · 4 letters · shape VVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Affeafe · afef · fafe
  • aufsafus · auffs · aufss · ausf · uafs

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Affe" and "aufs" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Affe" is a noun and "aufs" an abbrev, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Affe" vs "aufs" - which ranks higher?
"aufs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,005 in our German list, against #12,017 for "Affe". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Affe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aufs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,960,596 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Affe" and "aufs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Affe 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 #1,960,596 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