brinkvsetWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: brink is a noun, et is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“brink” is a noun and “et” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,421
“brink” frequency rank
#1,447
“et” frequency rank
38868
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature brink et
Definition Rand, Kante (besonders an einem steil abfallenden Platz, ein Kliff oder eine Schlucht) Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs eat

Letter map: brink vs et

Shared letters muted; letters that set brink and et apart highlighted. No shared letter run.

5 ch
brink
2 ch
et

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: brink is anoun and etaverb. On the page they differ by 3 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38868, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

brink is recorded at frequency rank #37,421, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. et is at rank #1,447, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 38868, this pair ranks #1,552,497 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of brink vs et

Shared letters: none. Private to "brink": biknr. Private to "et": et.

"brink" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "et" · 2 letters · shape VC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • brinkbbrink · birnk · brikn · brinkk · brinnk · brnik · brrink · rbink

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "brink" and "et" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "brink" is a noun and "et" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "brink" or "et"?
"et" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,447 in our German list, against #37,421 for "brink". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list