Which to use
“ales” is a noun and “als” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #34,373
- “ales” frequency rank
- #17,755
- “als” frequency rank
- 52128
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ales | als |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of ale | Obsolete form of also. |
Letter map: ales vs als
Shared letters muted; letters that set ales and als apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.
Part-of-speech tell for ales / als
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ales is anoun and alsanadverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52128, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ales is recorded at frequency rank #34,373, classified as anoun, pronounced /eɪlz/. 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 52128, this pair ranks #159,634 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ales vs als
Shared letters: als. Private to "ales": e. Private to "als": -.
"ales" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "als" · 3 letters · shape VCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- ales ← aels · aless · alles · alse · laes
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ales" and "als" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "ales" or "als"?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ales" and "als".
- Full dictionary entry for "ales" 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 #159,634 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ales" and "als" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ales vs algo". 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 #159,634 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.