amvsASSTell them apart

Which to use

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

#47
“am” frequency rank
#6,039
“ASS” frequency rank
6086
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature am ASS
Definition Angabe eines Zeitpunkts - wann? Acetylsalicylsäure

Where the eye mixes am and ASS

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

2 ch
am
3 ch
ASS

Look-alike desk: am vs ASS

A purely visual mix-up. am ([am]) and ASS ([aʔɛsˈʔɛs]) 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 6086, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

am is recorded at frequency rank #47, classified as anabbrev, pronounced [am]. ASS is at rank #6,039, tagged as anabbrev, pronounced [aʔɛsˈʔɛs].

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 6086, this pair ranks #1,992,764 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of am vs ASS

Shared letters: a. Private to "am": m. Private to "ASS": s.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "am" and "ASS" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([am] versus [aʔɛsˈʔɛs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "am" or "ASS" show up more?
"am" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #47 in our German list, against #6,039 for "ASS". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "am" and "ASS" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "am" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ASS" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,992,764 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "am" and "ASS" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ASS vs AUD". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,992,764 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