ages vs altes, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“ages” is a noun and “altes” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,682
“ages” frequency rank: #3,501
“altes” frequency rank: 52183
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ages	altes
Definition	Plural des Substantivs age	Nominativ Singular Neutrum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs alt

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set ages and altes apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

ages

5 ch

altes

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ages is [ˈeɪdʒɪz] while altes is [ˈaltəs]. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52183, 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]. altes is at rank #3,501, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈaltəs].

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 52183, this pair ranks #1,106,826 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ages vs altes

Shared letters: aes. Private to "ages": g. Private to "altes": lt.

"ages" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "altes" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

ages ← aegs · agess · agges
altes ← alets · alltes · altess · altse · alttes · atles · lates

Frequency comparison

ages#48,682

altes#3,501

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ages" and "altes" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ages" is a noun and "altes" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "ages" or "altes"?

"altes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,501 in our German list, against #48,682 for "ages". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering ages vs altes

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “ages”; for an adjective, it's “altes”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “ages” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable