als
[als]
The verdict
“als” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #24) as a conjunction. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #24
- frequency rank, German
- 6,976
- “A” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - der dem als folgende Part ist der mindere (weniger) oder der größere (mehr)
Corpus desk
Index DE-als · als · German
als · rank #24 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #24
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 6,976
- PHOTO-FINISH des
Nearest frequency peer: des (-1 rank slots)
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “als”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- auch
auch
99,980 corpus weight
- dem
dem
99,979 corpus weight
- des
des
99,978 corpus weight
- als
als
99,977 corpus weight
- er
er
99,976 corpus weight
- an
an
99,975 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “als” sits against the nearest ranked German headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | als |
| Language | German |
| Part of speech | Conjunction |
| IPA | [als] |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #24 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “als” sits in German frequency
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for als is neighbouring look-alikes ("an", "am", …), not just typos; it is aconjunction pronounced [als]. Frequency #24 among 6,976 “A” headwords. 7 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for als, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "an", "am", "at", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct German form is als, spelled A-L-S.
Definition
- 1der dem als folgende Part ist der mindere (weniger) oder der größere (mehr)
- 2temporal, zeitlich: die Zeitfolge betreffend
- 3temporal, zeitlich: die Zeitfolge betreffend
- 4temporal, zeitlich: die Zeitfolge betreffend
- 5temporal, zeitlich: die Zeitfolge betreffend
- 6gefolgt von einer adverbialen Bestimmung oder einem Attribut: Satzteilkonjunktion
- 7als Apposition in Form + Nominativ
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how als appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Goliath war größer als David.
„Der Vetturin aß mit größtem Appetit rohe Artischocken und Kohlrabi; freilich muß man gestehen, daß sie viel zärter und saftiger sind als wie bei uns.“
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar German words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "als", not the corpus desk frequency band.
What to do next
You've looked up "als". Here's where to go from here.
- "als" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "an". View pair
- Usage frequency rank #24 among German headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more German words in the "A" letter cohort. A–Z browse
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.