amavsaufConfusable pair

Quick tell: ama is a unknown, auf is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ama” is an unknown and “auf” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,432
“ama” frequency rank
#15
“auf” frequency rank
30447
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ama auf
Definition Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs amar (unabhängig von Person und Numerus) Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs amar (unabhängig von Person und Numerus) Suchergebnisse in der Interlingua-Wikipedia für „ama“ an der Oberseite von etwas

Letter map: ama vs auf

Shared letters muted; letters that set ama and auf apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
ama
3 ch
auf

Part-of-speech tell for ama / auf

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ama is anunknown and aufapreposition. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30447, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ama is recorded at frequency rank #30,432, classified as anunknown, pronounced […]. auf is at rank #15, tagged as aprep, pronounced [aʊ̯f].

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 30447, this pair ranks #1,747,652 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ama vs auf

Shared letters: a. Private to "ama": m. Private to "auf": fu.

"ama" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "auf" · 3 letters · shape VVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ama" and "auf" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ama" is an unknown and "auf" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "ama" or "auf" show up more?
"auf" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15 in our German list, against #30,432 for "ama". 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 "ama" and "auf". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ama" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "auf" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,747,652 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ama" and "auf" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ama vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,747,652 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