AschevsauchTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#7,008
“Asche” frequency rank
#21
“auch” frequency rank
7029
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Asche auch
Definition Verbrennungsrückstand und ferner

Where the eye mixes Asche and auch

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Asche
4 ch
auch

Why the eye confuses Asche with auch

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Asche is [ˈaʃə] while auch is [aʊ̯x]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7029, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Asche is recorded at frequency rank #7,008, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈaʃə]. auch is at rank #21, tagged as anadv, pronounced [aʊ̯x].

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 7029, this pair ranks #1,989,632 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Asche vs auch

Shared letters: ach. Private to "Asche": es. Private to "auch": u.

"Asche" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV  ·  "auch" · 4 letters · shape VVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Ascheacshe · ascche · asceh · aschhe · ashce · assche
  • auchacuh · aucch · auchh · auhc · uach

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Asche" and "auch" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Asche" is a noun and "auch" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Asche" vs "auch" - which ranks higher?
"auch" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21 in our German list, against #7,008 for "Asche". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Asche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "auch" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,989,632 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Asche" and "auch" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Aisch vs Asche". 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 #1,989,632 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