AllavsalsTell them apart

Quick tell: Alla is a name, als is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#33,112
“Alla” frequency rank
#17,755
“als” frequency rank
50867
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Alla als
Definition Obsolete form of Allah. Obsolete form of also.

Letter map: Alla vs als

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

4 ch
Alla
3 ch
als

Role in the sentence - Alla and als

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Alla is aname and alsanadverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50867, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Alla is recorded at frequency rank #33,112, classified as aname. 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 50867, this pair ranks #170,446 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Alla vs als

Shared letters: al. Private to "Alla": -. Private to "als": s.

"Alla" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "als" · 3 letters · shape VCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Allaalal · lala

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Alla" for "als" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Alla" is a name and "als" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Alla" vs "als" - which ranks higher?
"als" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,755 in our English list, against #33,112 for "Alla". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Alla" and "als".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Alla" 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 #170,446 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Alla" and "als" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Alla vs Asta". 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 #170,446 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list