alwaysvsawayTell them apart

Quick tell: always is a adverb, away is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“always” is an adverb and “away” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,989
“always” frequency rank
#8,429
“away” frequency rank
20418
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature always away
Definition sempre longe, distante, remoto

Letter map: always vs away

Shared letters muted; letters that set always and away apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
always
4 ch
away

Grammar separator: always vs away

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: always is anadverb and awayanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20418, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

always is recorded at frequency rank #11,989, classified as anadv. away is at rank #8,429, tagged as anadj, pronounced /əˈweɪ/.

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 20418, this pair ranks #50,116 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of always vs away

Shared letters: awy. Private to "always": ls. Private to "away": -.

"always" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC  ·  "away" · 4 letters · shape VCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • alwaysalawys · allways · alwasy · alwayss · alwayys · alwways · alwyas · awlays
  • awayaawy · awayy · awway · awya · waay

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "always" for "away" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "always" is an adverb and "away" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "always" or "away"?
"away" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,429 in our Portuguese list, against #11,989 for "always". 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 "always" and "away".

  • Full dictionary entry for "always" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "away" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #50,116 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "always" and "away" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "atar vs away". 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 #50,116 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list