yesterdayvsyesterday'sWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: yesterday is a noun, yesterday's is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“yesterday” is a noun and “yesterday's” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,325
“yesterday” frequency rank
#12,719
“yesterday's” frequency rank
14044
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature yesterday yesterday's
Definition The day immediately before today; one day ago. Of or relating to yesterday. (This entry is a translation hub.)

Letter map: yesterday vs yesterday's

Shared letters muted; letters that set yesterday and yesterday's apart highlighted. Shared run: 9.

9 ch
yesterday
11 ch
yesterday's

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: yesterday is anoun and yesterday'sanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “yesterday” sits inside “yesterday's”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14044, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

yesterday is recorded at frequency rank #1,325, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈjɛstədeɪ/. yesterday's is at rank #12,719, tagged as anadj.

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 14044, this pair ranks #472,375 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of yesterday vs yesterday's

Shared letters: adersty. Private to "yesterday": -. Private to "yesterday's": -.

"yesterday" · 9 letters · shape VVCCVCCVV  ·  "yesterday's" · 10 letters · shape VVCCVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • yesterdayeysterday · yesetrday · yessterday · yestedray · yesterady · yesterdayy · yesterdday · yesterdya

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "yesterday" and "yesterday's" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "yesterday" is a noun and "yesterday's" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "yesterday" or "yesterday's"?
"yesterday" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,325 in our English list, against #12,719 for "yesterday's". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list