dreckigevsdreckigerTell them apart

Which to use

“dreckige” and “dreckiger” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#18,858
“dreckige” frequency rank
#29,084
“dreckiger” frequency rank
47942
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dreckige dreckiger
Definition Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs dreckig Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs dreckig

Where the eye mixes dreckige and dreckiger

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

8 ch
dreckige
9 ch
dreckiger

Why the eye confuses dreckige with dreckiger

A purely visual mix-up. dreckige ([ˈdʁɛkɪɡə]) and dreckiger ([ˈdʁɛkɪɡɐ]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “dreckige” sits inside “dreckiger”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47942, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dreckige is recorded at frequency rank #18,858, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈdʁɛkɪɡə]. dreckiger is at rank #29,084, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈdʁɛkɪɡɐ].

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 47942, this pair ranks #1,266,440 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dreckige vs dreckiger

Shared letters: cdegikr. Private to "dreckige": -. Private to "dreckiger": -.

"dreckige" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCV  ·  "dreckiger" · 9 letters · shape CCVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dreckigeddreckige · derckige · drcekige · drecckige · drecikge · dreckgie · dreckieg · dreckigge
  • dreckigerddreckiger · derckiger · drcekiger · drecckiger · drecikger · dreckgier · dreckiegr · dreckigerr

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dreckige" and "dreckiger" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈdʁɛkɪɡə] versus [ˈdʁɛkɪɡɐ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "dreckige" vs "dreckiger" - which ranks higher?
"dreckige" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,858 in our German list, against #29,084 for "dreckiger". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dreckige" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dreckiger" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,266,440 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dreckige" and "dreckiger" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dreckiger vs dreckiges". 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 #1,266,440 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