drittensvsdritterWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: drittens is a adverb, dritter is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“drittens” is an adverb and “dritter” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,779
“drittens” frequency rank
#3,239
“dritter” frequency rank
18018
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature drittens dritter
Definition an dritter Stelle (einer Aufzählung, Gliederung oder Ähnlichem) stehend Nominativ Singular Maskulinum der starken Flexion des Positivs des Adjektivs dritte

Where the eye mixes drittens and dritter

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

8 ch
drittens
7 ch
dritter

Why the eye confuses drittens with dritter

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: drittens is [ˈdʁɪtn̩s] while dritter is [ˈdʁɪtɐ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18018, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

drittens is recorded at frequency rank #14,779, classified as anadv, pronounced [ˈdʁɪtn̩s]. dritter is at rank #3,239, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈdʁɪtɐ].

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 18018, this pair ranks #1,922,165 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of drittens vs dritter

Shared letters: deirt. Private to "drittens": ns. Private to "dritter": -.

"drittens" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC  ·  "dritter" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • drittensddrittens · dirttens · dritens · dritetns · drittenns · drittenss · drittesn · drittnes
  • dritterddritter · dirtter · driter · dritetr · dritterr · drittre · drritter · drtiter

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "drittens" for "dritter" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "drittens" is an adverb and "dritter" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "drittens" vs "dritter" - which ranks higher?
"dritter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,239 in our German list, against #14,779 for "drittens". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "drittens" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dritter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,922,165 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "drittens" and "dritter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dreister vs dritter". 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 #1,922,165 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