DüngervsdünnesWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#19,545
“Dünger” frequency rank
#29,092
“dünnes” frequency rank
48637
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Dünger dünnes
Definition flüssige oder feste Nährstoffe, die in die Erde gegeben werden, damit Pflanzen besser wachsen Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs dünn

Where the eye mixes Dünger and dünnes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Dünger and dünnes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
Dünger
6 ch
dünnes

Look-alike desk: Dünger vs dünnes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Dünger is [ˈdʏŋɐ] while dünnes is [ˈdʏnəs]. 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 48637, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Dünger is recorded at frequency rank #19,545, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈdʏŋɐ]. dünnes is at rank #29,092, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈdʏnəs].

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 48637, this pair ranks #1,241,203 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Dünger vs dünnes

Shared letters: denü. Private to "Dünger": gr. Private to "dünnes": s.

"Dünger" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "dünnes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Dünger" and "dünnes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Dünger" is a noun and "dünnes" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Dünger" or "dünnes"?
"Dünger" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,545 in our German list, against #29,092 for "dünnes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Dünger" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dünnes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,241,203 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Dünger" and "dünnes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dudes vs dünnes". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,241,203 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