adds vs als, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#3,734
“adds” frequency rank: #17,755
“als” frequency rank: 21489
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	adds	als
Definition	plural of add	Obsolete form of also.

Letter map: adds vs als

Shared letters muted; letters that set adds and als apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch

adds

3 ch

als

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: adds is anoun and alsanadverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21489, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

adds is recorded at frequency rank #3,734, classified as anoun, pronounced /æ(d)z/. als is at rank #17,755, tagged as anadv.

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 21489, this pair ranks #423,544 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of adds vs als

Shared letters: as. Private to "adds": d. Private to "als": l.

"adds" · 4 letters · shape VCCC · "als" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Known mistypes of this pair

adds ← addss · adsd

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "adds" and "als" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "adds" is a noun and "als" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "adds" or "als"?

"adds" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,734 in our English list, against #17,755 for "als". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "adds" and "als". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "adds" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "als" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #423,544 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"adds" and "als" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "als vs amb". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.