Which to use
“dritten” is an adjective and “drittens” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #965
- “dritten” frequency rank
- #14,779
- “drittens” frequency rank
- 15744
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dritten | drittens |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs dritte | an dritter Stelle (einer Aufzählung, Gliederung oder Ähnlichem) stehend |
Where the eye mixes dritten and drittens
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses dritten with drittens
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dritten is [ˈdʁɪtn̩] while drittens is [ˈdʁɪtn̩s]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “dritten” sits inside “drittens”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15744, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dritten is recorded at frequency rank #965, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈdʁɪtn̩]. drittens is at rank #14,779, tagged as anadv, pronounced [ˈdʁɪtn̩s].
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 15744, this pair ranks #1,941,478 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of dritten vs drittens
Shared letters: deinrt. Private to "dritten": -. Private to "drittens": s.
"dritten" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC · "drittens" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dritten" for "drittens" ever safe?
Which is more common, "dritten" or "drittens"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "dritten" and "drittens" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "dritten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "drittens" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,941,478 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dritten" and "drittens" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Dritteln vs drittens". 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 #1,941,478 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.