allvsareTell them apart

Quick tell: all is a adjective, are is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#3,589
“all” frequency rank
#6,166
“are” frequency rank
9755
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature all are
Definition Tout, tous. Unité de mesure de surface de terrains, égale à 100 mètres carrés.

Where the eye mixes all and are

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
all
3 ch
are

Visual trap between all and are

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: all is \al\ while are is \aʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9755, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

all is recorded at frequency rank #3,589, classified as anadj, pronounced \al\. are is at rank #6,166, tagged as anoun, pronounced \aʁ\.

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 9755, this pair ranks #415,530 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of all vs are

Shared letters: a. Private to "all": l. Private to "are": er.

"all" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "are" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "all" and "are" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "all" is an adjective and "are" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "all" vs "are" - which ranks higher?
"all" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,589 in our French list, against #6,166 for "are". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "all" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "are" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #415,530 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "all" and "are" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "are vs aves". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #415,530 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list