allesvsaltesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: alles is a pronoun, altes is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“alles” is a pronoun and “altes” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#97
“alles” frequency rank
#3,501
“altes” frequency rank
3598
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alles altes
Definition Genitiv Singular Maskulinum des Indefinitpronomens all Nominativ Singular Neutrum Positiv der starken Flexion des Adjektivs alt

Where the eye mixes alles and altes

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

5 ch
alles
5 ch
altes

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: alles is [ˈaləs] while altes is [ˈaltəs]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - l in “alles” becomes t in “altes”, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3598, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alles is recorded at frequency rank #97, classified as apron, pronounced [ˈaləs]. altes is at rank #3,501, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈaltəs].

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 3598, this pair ranks #1,999,831 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of alles vs altes

Shared letters: aels. Private to "alles": -. Private to "altes": t.

"alles" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "altes" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • allesalels · ales · alless · allse · lales
  • altesalets · alltes · altess · altse · alttes · atles · lates

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "alles" and "altes" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "alles" is a pronoun and "altes" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "alles" or "altes"?
"alles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #97 in our German list, against #3,501 for "altes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "alles" and "altes". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "alles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "altes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,999,831 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "alles" and "altes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ages vs altes". 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