DonnervsdünnemWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Donner is a noun, dünnem is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Donner” is a noun and “dünnem” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,332
“Donner” frequency rank
#42,439
“dünnem” frequency rank
57771
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Donner dünnem
Definition ein krachendes, mahlendes, grollendes oder rollendes Geräusch, das von einem Blitz während eines Gewitters erzeugt wird Dativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs dünn

Where the eye mixes Donner and dünnem

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
Donner
6 ch
dünnem

Visual trap between Donner and dünnem

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Donner is [ˈdɔnɐ] while dünnem is [ˈdʏnəm]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57771, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Donner is recorded at frequency rank #15,332, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈdɔnɐ]. dünnem is at rank #42,439, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈdʏnəm].

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 57771, this pair ranks #888,431 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Donner vs dünnem

Shared letters: den. Private to "Donner": or. Private to "dünnem": .

"Donner" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "dünnem" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Donnerddonner · dnoner · donenr · doner · donnerr · donnre · odnner

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Donner" and "dünnem" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Donner" is a noun and "dünnem" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Donner" or "dünnem"?
"Donner" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,332 in our German list, against #42,439 for "dünnem". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "Donner" and "dünnem" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Donner" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dünnem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #888,431 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Donner" and "dünnem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Düne vs dünnem". 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 #888,431 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