AlbenvsalleinWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Alben is a noun, allein is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#8,325
“Alben” frequency rank
#391
“allein” frequency rank
8716
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Alben allein
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Album für sich, getrennt, einsam, einzeln sein; nur; ohne Beistand, Zeugen, Anwesenheit von anderen Personen, ohne Hilfe sein

Where the eye mixes Alben and allein

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

5 ch
Alben
6 ch
allein

Why the eye confuses Alben with allein

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Alben is [ˈalbn̩] while allein is [aˈlaɪ̯n]. 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 8716, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Alben is recorded at frequency rank #8,325, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈalbn̩]. allein is at rank #391, tagged as anadj, pronounced [aˈlaɪ̯n].

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 8716, this pair ranks #1,983,132 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Alben vs allein

Shared letters: aeln. Private to "Alben": b. Private to "allein": i.

"Alben" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "allein" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Albenablen · albben · albenn · albne · alebn · allben · laben
  • alleinalein · alelin · alleinn · alleni · allien · lalein

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Alben" and "allein" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Alben" is a noun and "allein" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Alben" vs "allein" - which ranks higher?
"allein" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #391 in our German list, against #8,325 for "Alben". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Alben" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "allein" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,983,132 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Alben" and "allein" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Alben vs Alleen". 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 #1,983,132 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