Which to use
“Alan” is a name and “all” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,275
- “Alan” frequency rank
- #32
- “all” frequency rank
- 3307
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Alan | all |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A male given name from the Celtic languages. | Every individual or anything of the given class, with no exceptions (the noun or noun phrase denoting the class must be plural or uncountable). |
Where the eye mixes Alan and all
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Alan is /ˈæl.ən/ while all is /ɔːl/. 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 (name vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3307, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Alan is recorded at frequency rank #3,275, classified as aname, pronounced /ˈæl.ən/. all is at rank #32, tagged as adet, pronounced /ɔːl/.
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 3307, this pair ranks #522,493 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of Alan vs all
Shared letters: al. Private to "Alan": n. Private to "all": -.
"Alan" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "all" · 3 letters · shape VCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- Alan ← aaln · alann · alna · laan