drittenvsdrittesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#965
“dritten” frequency rank
#8,698
“drittes” frequency rank
9663
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dritten drittes
Definition Genitiv Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs dritte Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs dritte

Where the eye mixes dritten and drittes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
dritten
7 ch
drittes

Why the eye confuses dritten with drittes

A purely visual mix-up. dritten ([ˈdʁɪtn̩]) and drittes ([ˈdʁɪtəs]) 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 a single letter - n in “dritten” becomes s in “drittes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9663, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dritten is recorded at frequency rank #965, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈdʁɪtn̩]. drittes is at rank #8,698, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈdʁɪtəs].

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 9663, this pair ranks #1,978,880 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dritten vs drittes

Shared letters: deirt. Private to "dritten": n. Private to "drittes": s.

"dritten" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC  ·  "drittes" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • drittenddritten · dirtten · driten · dritetn · drittenn · drittne · drritten · drtiten
  • drittesddrittes · dirttes · drites · dritets · drittess · drittse · drrittes · drtites

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dritten" and "drittes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈdʁɪtn̩] versus [ˈdʁɪtəs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dritten" or "drittes"?
"dritten" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #965 in our German list, against #8,698 for "drittes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dritten" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "drittes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,978,880 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dritten" and "drittes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Dritteln vs drittes". 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 #1,978,880 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