AignervsEignerWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Aigner is a name, Eigner is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Aigner” is a name and “Eigner” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#25,880
“Aigner” frequency rank
#25,971
“Eigner” frequency rank
51851
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Aigner Eigner
Definition deutschsprachiger Familienname, Nachname mit einer hohen Dichte in Österreich und Bayern Person, die Eigentümer von etwas ist

Same sound, different letters: Aigner vs Eigner

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.

6 ch
Aigner
6 ch
Eigner

Ear matches; page differs - Aigner and Eigner

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: Aigner and Eigner carry the same recorded pronunciation, [ˈaɪ̯ɡnɐ]. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is aname, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by a single letter - a in “Aigner” becomes e in “Eigner”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51851, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Aigner is recorded at frequency rank #25,880, classified as aname, pronounced [ˈaɪ̯ɡnɐ]. Eigner is at rank #25,971, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈaɪ̯ɡnɐ].

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 51851, this pair ranks #1,119,576 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Aigner vs Eigner

Shared letters: eginr. Private to "Aigner": a. Private to "Eigner": -.

"Aigner" · 6 letters · shape VVCCVC  ·  "Eigner" · 6 letters · shape VVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Aigneraginer · aigenr · aiggner · aignerr · aignner · aignre · ainger · iagner
  • Eignereginer · eigenr · eiggner · eignerr · eignner · eignre · einger · iegner

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Aigner" for "Eigner" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Aigner" is a name and "Eigner" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "Aigner" or "Eigner" show up more?
"Aigner" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,880 in our German list, against #25,971 for "Eigner". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "Aigner" / "Eigner". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Aigner" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Eigner" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,119,576 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Aigner" and "Eigner" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Eigner vs eignete". 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 #1,119,576 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