Which to use
“again” is an adverb and “against” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,370
- “again” frequency rank
- #18,459
- “against” frequency rank
- 29829
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | again | against |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | wieder, nochmals, erneut, noch einmal | gegen, dagegen |
Where the eye mixes again and against
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: again vs against
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: again is [əˈɡɛn] while against is [əˈɡɛnst]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “again” sits inside “against”, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29829, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
again is recorded at frequency rank #11,370, classified as anadv, pronounced [əˈɡɛn]. against is at rank #18,459, tagged as aprep, pronounced [əˈɡɛnst].
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 29829, this pair ranks #1,759,481 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of again vs against
Shared letters: agin. Private to "again": -. Private to "against": st.
"again" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC · "against" · 7 letters · shape VCVVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "again" for "against" ever safe?
Frequency check: "again" vs "against" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "again" and "against" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "again" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "against" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,759,481 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "again" and "against" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "against vs Ägäis". 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 #1,759,481 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.