Which to use
“ärgern” is a verb and “armer” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,316
- “ärgern” frequency rank
- #9,679
- “armer” frequency rank
- 17995
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ärgern | armer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | (jemanden) necken, Ärger verursachen | Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs arm |
Where the eye mixes ärgern and armer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. ärgern runs 6 letters (VCCVCC) against armer's 5 (VCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: ärgern vs armer
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ärgern is [ˈɛʁɡɐn] while armer is [ˈaʁmɐ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17995, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ärgern is recorded at frequency rank #8,316, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈɛʁɡɐn]. armer is at rank #9,679, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈaʁmɐ].
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 17995, this pair ranks #1,922,372 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of ärgern vs armer
Shared letters: er. Private to "ärgern": gnä. Private to "armer": am.
"ärgern" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC · "armer" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- armer ← amrer · aremr · armerr · armmer · armre · arrmer · ramer
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "ärgern" and "armer" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary German text, does "ärgern" or "armer" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "ärgern" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "armer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,922,372 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ärgern" and "armer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arma vs armer". 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 #1,922,372 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.