AftervsaltereWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#8,322
“After” frequency rank
#36,169
“altere” frequency rank
44491
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature After altere
Definition Austrittsöffnung des Darms, durch welche der Kot den Darm verlässt 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs altern

Where the eye mixes After and altere

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
After
6 ch
altere

Look-alike desk: After vs altere

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: After is [ˈaftɐ] while altere is [ˈaltəʁə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44491, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

After is recorded at frequency rank #8,322, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈaftɐ]. altere is at rank #36,169, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈaltəʁə].

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 44491, this pair ranks #1,384,521 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of After vs altere

Shared letters: aert. Private to "After": f. Private to "altere": l.

"After" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "altere" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Afterafetr · affter · afterr · aftre · aftter · atfer · fater
  • alterealetre · alltere · alteer · alterre · altree · alttere · atlere · latere

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "After" for "altere" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "After" is a noun and "altere" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "After" vs "altere" - which ranks higher?
"After" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,322 in our German list, against #36,169 for "altere". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "After" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "altere" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,384,521 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "After" and "altere" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "altere vs alternde". 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 #1,384,521 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