allevsarmeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: alle is a adverb, arme is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“alle” is an adverb and “arme” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#80
“alle” frequency rank
#1,652
“arme” frequency rank
1732
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alle arme
Definition mitteldeutsch und norddeutsch, umgangssprachlich:' leer, nicht mehr vorrätig Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs arm

Where the eye mixes alle and arme

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
alle
4 ch
arme

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: alle is [ˈalə] while arme is [ˈaʁmə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1732, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alle is recorded at frequency rank #80, classified as anadv, pronounced [ˈalə]. arme is at rank #1,652, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈaʁmə].

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 1732, this pair ranks #2,003,826 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of alle vs arme

Shared letters: ae. Private to "alle": l. Private to "arme": mr.

"alle" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "arme" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • allealel · lale
  • armeamre · arem · armme · arrme · rame

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "alle" and "arme" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "alle" is an adverb and "arme" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "alle" or "arme"?
"alle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #80 in our German list, against #1,652 for "arme". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list