altarsvsalwaysWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: altars is a noun, always is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“altars” is a noun and “always” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,697
“altars” frequency rank
#18,797
“always” frequency rank
62494
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature altars always
Definition Plural des Substantivs altar immer

Letter map: altars vs always

Shared letters muted; letters that set altars and always apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
altars
6 ch
always

Role in the sentence - altars and always

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: altars is anoun and alwaysanadverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62494, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

altars is recorded at frequency rank #43,697, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. always is at rank #18,797, tagged as anadv, pronounced […].

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 62494, this pair ranks #710,863 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of altars vs always

Shared letters: als. Private to "altars": rt. Private to "always": wy.

"altars" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC  ·  "always" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • altarsalatrs · alltars · altarrs · altarss · altasr · altras · alttars · atlars
  • alwaysalawys · allways · alwasy · alwayss · alwayys · alwways · alwyas · awlays

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "altars" for "always" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "altars" is a noun and "always" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "altars" vs "always" - which ranks higher?
"always" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,797 in our German list, against #43,697 for "altars". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "altars" vs "always" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "altars" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "always" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #710,863 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "altars" and "always" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "altars 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 #710,863 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