CO on Ru{10 (1) over bar0} was investigated by broadband femtosecond sum-frequency spectroscopy at 200 K. Approximately half of the frequency shift of 71 cm(-1) over the coverage range from 0.15 to 1.22 monolayers is shown to originate from dipole-dipole coupling, with the remainder due to a chemical shift. Despite low adlayer-surface registration at the highest coverages, the linewidth of the C-O stretch is comparatively low, and is described by homogeneous broadening according to sum-frequency free-induction decay measurements in the time domain. This can be explained by the dominance of the CO dipole coupling strength over the static disorder present in a coincidence structure. As the coverage decreases below 0.3 monolayer, the linewidth increases considerably, indicative of inhomogeneous broadening. Supported by a concomitant frequency change we suggest that at low coverages CO molecules form chains of irregular length in the [0001] direction, as has been shown for other surfaces with similar symmetry. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.