am vs ARD, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“am” and “ARD” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#47
“am” frequency rank: #3,353
“ARD” frequency rank: 3400
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	am	ARD
Definition	Angabe eines Zeitpunkts - wann?	Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland

Where the eye mixes am and ARD

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

2 ch

3 ch

ARD

Why the eye confuses am with ARD

A purely visual mix-up. am ([am]) and ARD ([aʔɛɐ̯ˈdeː]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3400, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

am is recorded at frequency rank #47, classified as anabbrev, pronounced [am]. ARD is at rank #3,353, tagged as anabbrev, pronounced [aʔɛɐ̯ˈdeː].

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 3400, this pair ranks #2,000,296 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of am vs ARD

Shared letters: a. Private to "am": m. Private to "ARD": dr.

"am" · 2 letters · shape VC · "ARD" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "am" for "ARD" ever safe?

No. They are said differently ([am] versus [aʔɛɐ̯ˈdeː]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Frequency check: "am" vs "ARD" - which ranks higher?

"am" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #47 in our German list, against #3,353 for "ARD". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

Full dictionary entry for "am" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "ARD" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #2,000,296 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"am" and "ARD" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ARD vs AUD". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #2,000,296 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.