Which to use
“altere” is a verb and “ärgere” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #36,169
- “altere” frequency rank
- #22,986
- “ärgere” frequency rank
- 59155
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | altere | ärgere |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs altern | Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Komparativs des Adjektivs arg |
Where the eye mixes altere and ärgere
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. altere and ärgere follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: altere vs ärgere
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: altere is [ˈaltəʁə] while ärgere is [ˈɛʁɡəʁə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59155, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
altere is recorded at frequency rank #36,169, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈaltəʁə]. ärgere is at rank #22,986, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈɛʁɡəʁə].
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 59155, this pair ranks #835,174 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of altere vs ärgere
Shared letters: er. Private to "altere": alt. Private to "ärgere": gä.
"altere" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "ärgere" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- altere ← aletre · alltere · alteer · alterre · altree · alttere · atlere · latere
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "altere" for "ärgere" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "altere" or "ärgere" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "altere" and "ärgere" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "altere" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ärgere" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #835,174 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "altere" and "ärgere" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "altere vs alternde". 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 #835,174 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.