allenvsaltemWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#276
“allen” frequency rank
#16,081
“altem” frequency rank
16357
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature allen altem
Definition Dativ Plural des Indefinitpronomens all Dativ Singular Maskulinum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs alt

Where the eye mixes allen and altem

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

5 ch
allen
5 ch
altem

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: allen is [ˈalən] while altem is [ˈaltəm]. 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 16357, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

allen is recorded at frequency rank #276, classified as anunknown, pronounced [ˈalən]. altem is at rank #16,081, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈaltəm].

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 16357, this pair ranks #1,936,522 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of allen vs altem

Shared letters: ael. Private to "allen": n. Private to "altem": mt.

"allen" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "altem" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • allenaleln · alen · allenn · allne · lalen
  • altemaletm · alltem · altemm · altme · alttem · atlem · latem

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "allen" and "altem" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "allen" is an unknown and "altem" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "allen" or "altem"?
"allen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #276 in our German list, against #16,081 for "altem". 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