alevsavecWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: ale is a noun, avec is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ale” is a noun and “avec” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,606
“ale” frequency rank
#18,175
“avec” frequency rank
40781
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ale avec
Definition Ale in Anwesenheit von, in Begleitung von; mit, bei

Letter map: ale vs avec

Shared letters muted; letters that set ale and avec apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
ale
4 ch
avec

Grammar separator: ale vs avec

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ale is anoun and avecapreposition. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40781, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ale is recorded at frequency rank #22,606, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. avec is at rank #18,175, tagged as aprep, pronounced [a.vɛk].

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 40781, this pair ranks #1,498,460 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ale vs avec

Shared letters: ae. Private to "ale": l. Private to "avec": cv.

"ale" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "avec" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • avecaevc · avce · avecc · avvec · vaec

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ale" for "avec" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ale" is a noun and "avec" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ale" or "avec"?
"avec" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,175 in our German list, against #22,606 for "ale". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ale" and "avec".

  • Full dictionary entry for "ale" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "avec" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,498,460 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ale" and "avec" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ale vs puzzles". 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 #1,498,460 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