DiebenvsdiesenWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Dieben is a noun, diesen is an unknown, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Dieben” is a noun and “diesen” is an unknown - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,880
“Dieben” frequency rank
#179
“diesen” frequency rank
37059
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Dieben diesen
Definition Dativ Plural des Substantivs Dieb Akkusativ Singular Maskulinum des Demonstrativpronomens dies

Where the eye mixes Dieben and diesen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. Dieben and diesen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
Dieben
6 ch
diesen

Why the eye confuses Dieben with diesen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Dieben is [ˈdiːbn̩] while diesen is [ˈdiːzn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - b in “Dieben” becomes s in “diesen”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs unknown), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37059, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Dieben is recorded at frequency rank #36,880, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈdiːbn̩]. diesen is at rank #179, tagged as anunknown, pronounced [ˈdiːzn̩].

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 37059, this pair ranks #1,599,844 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Dieben vs diesen

Shared letters: dein. Private to "Dieben": b. Private to "diesen": s.

"Dieben" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "diesen" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Dieben ← ddieben · deiben · dibeen · diebben · diebenn · diebne · dieebn · ideben
  • diesen ← ddiesen · deisen · dieesn · diesenn · diesne · diessen · diseen · idesen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Dieben" and "diesen" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Dieben" is a noun and "diesen" an unknown, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Dieben" or "diesen"?
"diesen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #179 in our German list, against #36,880 for "Dieben". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Dieben" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "diesen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,599,844 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Dieben" and "diesen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Dieben vs dissen". 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 #1,599,844 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