criminalvsetConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#38,036
“criminal” frequency rank
#1,447
“et” frequency rank
39483
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature criminal et
Definition kriminell, verbrecherisch Präteritum (simple past) des Verbs eat

Letter map: criminal vs et

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

8 ch
criminal
2 ch
et

Grammar separator: criminal vs et

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: criminal is anadjective and etaverb. On the page they differ by 6 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39483, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

criminal is recorded at frequency rank #38,036, classified as anadj, 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 39483, this pair ranks #1,535,538 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of criminal vs et

Shared letters: none. Private to "criminal": acilmnr. Private to "et": et.

"criminal" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC  ·  "et" · 2 letters · shape VC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • criminalccriminal · cirminal · criimnal · crimianl · criminall · criminla · criminnal · crimminal

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "criminal" for "et" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "criminal" is an adjective and "et" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "criminal" vs "et" - which ranks higher?
"et" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,447 in our German list, against #38,036 for "criminal". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "criminal" and "et".

  • Full dictionary entry for "criminal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "et" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,535,538 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "criminal" and "et" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "criminal vs puzzles". 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 #1,535,538 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