Which to use
“ages” is a noun and “alles” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #48,682
- “ages” frequency rank
- #97
- “alles” frequency rank
- 48779
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ages | alles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Plural des Substantivs age | Genitiv Singular Maskulinum des Indefinitpronomens all |
Where the eye mixes ages and alles
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. ages runs 4 letters (VCVC) against alles's 5 (VCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: ages vs alles
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ages is [ˈeɪdʒɪz] while alles is [ˈaləs]. 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 pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48779, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ages is recorded at frequency rank #48,682, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈeɪdʒɪz]. alles is at rank #97, tagged as apron, pronounced [ˈaləs].
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 48779, this pair ranks #1,235,960 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ages vs alles
Shared letters: aes. Private to "ages": g. Private to "alles": l.
"ages" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "alles" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ages" for "alles" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "ages" or "alles" show up more?
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 "ages" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "alles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,235,960 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ages" and "alles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ages vs avis". 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 #1,235,960 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.