allemvsaltenWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: allem is a unknown, alten is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“allem” is an unknown and “alten” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#239
“allem” frequency rank
#416
“alten” frequency rank
655
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature allem alten
Definition maskuliner und neutraler Dativ Singular des Indefinitpronomens alle Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Adjektivs alt

Where the eye mixes allem and alten

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
allem
5 ch
alten

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: allem is [ˈaləm] while alten is [ˈaltn̩]. 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 (unknown vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 655, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

allem is recorded at frequency rank #239, classified as anunknown, pronounced [ˈaləm]. alten is at rank #416, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈaltn̩].

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 655, this pair ranks #2,005,549 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of allem vs alten

Shared letters: ael. Private to "allem": m. Private to "alten": nt.

"allem" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "alten" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • allemalelm · alem · allemm · allme · lalem
  • altenaletn · allten · altenn · altne · altten · atlen · laten

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "allem" and "alten" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "allem" is an unknown and "alten" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "allem" or "alten"?
"allem" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #239 in our German list, against #416 for "alten". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "allem" and "alten". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "allem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "alten" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,005,549 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "allem" and "alten" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Alleen vs alten". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list