abevsAbendTell them apart

Which to use

“abe” and “Abend” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#14,223
“abe” frequency rank
#405
“Abend” frequency rank
14628
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature abe Abend
Definition Affe die Tageszeit nach dem Nachmittag, die beginnt, wenn die Sonne den Horizont erreicht, und bei völliger Dunkelheit endet; dem Abend geht der Tag voran und auf den Abend folgt die Nacht

Where the eye mixes abe and Abend

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
abe
5 ch
Abend

Visual trap between abe and Abend

A purely visual mix-up. abe ([ˈɛːb̥ə]) and Abend ([ˈaːbn̩t]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “abe” sits inside “Abend”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14628, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

abe is recorded at frequency rank #14,223, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈɛːb̥ə]. Abend is at rank #405, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈaːbn̩t].

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 14628, this pair ranks #1,949,873 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of abe vs Abend

Shared letters: abe. Private to "abe": -. Private to "Abend": dn.

"abe" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "Abend" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Abendabbend · abedn · abendd · abennd · abned · aebnd · baend

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "abe" for "Abend" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈɛːb̥ə] versus [ˈaːbn̩t]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "abe" or "Abend"?
"Abend" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #405 in our German list, against #14,223 for "abe". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "abe" and "Abend" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "abe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Abend" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,949,873 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "abe" and "Abend" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "abe vs AUD". 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 #1,949,873 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list